


The Flowers Speak My Language

by himegure_writes



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bisexual Lance, Gay Keith, Japanese Keith, Japanese Shiro, Keith and Pidge friendship, Keith and Shiro are Adoptive Siblings, Keith and Shiro are Siblings, Keith's gay, M/M, Magical Tattoos, Mostly Klance, Pansexual Pidge, Pining, They're cool, Witch Allura, Witch Keith, Witch Pidge, allura has magical tattoos too, allura's a local bisexual, and the new shop keeper across the street comes in for a plant, bi lance, broganes, dont @ me about shallura, hunk likes shay that's all, imma try to fit some japanese culture into the brogane household, it's hard when the plants show your internal emotions x10, keith akira kogane - Freeform, keith has a spiritual bond with plants, keith is gay pining, keith pidge and allura all do magic, keith's a raging homosexual, keith's curious about lance's sexuality, keith's trying to keep it a secret, lance and hunk don't know about it, lance is a raging bisexual, lance owns a sea side-esque shop, light shallura - Freeform, magic n shit, pidge gives him shit, sea shells n shit, shiro respects women including allura, shiro's chill w it, sometimes they call her by katie??, the rest don't, they curse ocassionally, usually i have allura and lance as cousins but they're not related in this, witch au??
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-03-28
Packaged: 2019-03-05 03:53:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 29,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13379577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/himegure_writes/pseuds/himegure_writes
Summary: Keith can speak to plants and it's quite hard to keep it a secret when the Cuban boy walks into his flower shop one morning.





	1. The Ace of Cups

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A new shopowner walks into Keith and Katie's flower shop one morning, perhaps it was fate.

"Pidge! Where did you put the orchids? Allura's picking them up today!" 

"They're near the back!"

Just as Pidge said, the white orchids were, in fact, in the back. Keith grabbed a decorative bow, tying it around the pot the plant sat in and made a simple bow. He picked it up and took it up front, placing it behind the counter where a few other pre-ordered plants waited to be picked up. Keith picked up a watering can, going around and watering the plants that weren't watered by Pidge. Once watered, the plants swayed happily, some small buds blossoming in gratitude. He smiled, turning and putting the watering can in its original place. 

"How are the snapdragons?" Keith asked as he passed Pidge, who was potting a newly-bloomed lily.

"They're perfect, full of color and looking lively. The red one's got an attitude, though, it nearly bit me this morning. I can't believe you're a plant Keith." Pidge snorted, earning a not-so-light shove from the male.

"Says the one covered in ivy tattoos. You better watch it, you're lucky I still let you stay in the attic."

"The tattoos actually have a purpose and I like to show mine, unlike you. And you don't really have a choice, I'm your crystal provider and even if you kicked me out I'd sneak back in just like the first time."

"Breaking into someone's property is illegal."

"It's only illegal if you get caught." 

"You have a point. Do the crystals need cleansing?" Keith asked, turning his head to look down at Pidge. She wore a bright green apron, smudged with dirt and decorated, like her arms, in ivy and other small flowers. Her long hair was tied back at the nape of her neck, her bangs held back with a matching green headband. She never wore gloves, so her hands and nails were always dirty. Keith was guilty of it, too, but Shiro demanded he scrub at them until they're clean before coming home. Pidge nodded, and Keith turned to unlock the back room. 

Upon entering the room, he was greeted with a usual sight. A circular table stood in the center of the room, a few chunks of crystal quartz and a bundle of sage sitting amongst a stack of tarot cards neatly stacked in the center. He'd have to read his and Pidge's cards for today soon, maybe do Allura's too when she stopped by. Behind the table sat a bookshelf, lined with glistening crystals of all shapes, sizes, and colors. Chunks of agate, hematite, galena, kyanite, and other healing crystals sat on the shelves, radiating positive energy. If Keith had any worries or anxiety before entering, it was completely diminished now. He took a deep breath, enjoying the positive energy surrounding him. He picked up the sage, lighting it with a match from the table, allowing the sage to burn for a moment before blowing out the flames and watching smoke emerge from the dried bundle. Slowly, thinking positive thoughts, he began drifting the burning sage through each self, the smoke engulfing the crystals. He did a quick circle around the room, making sure to get all of the crystals in the room that weren't on display as well. After leaving the room for a moment to walk around the shop with the sage, he put it out with a copper bowl full of sand and took another deep breath. 

"Hey, Pidge, wanna do a reading real quick before we open shop for today?"

"Is that even a question?" Pidge asked, a bright smile erupting onto her face. She pulled a necklace out from under her shirt, a large chunk of clear crystal quartz now in view. Keith did the same, following her back into the back room. They both sat down across from eachother, Pidge giving the tarot deck a quick shuffle. She took a deep breath, cutting the deck to her left after setting the deck face down. She flipped over the top card, her amber eyes analyzing the card quietly. "Nine of cups." She said quietly. "I'm satisfied with where my life is heading and today will bring me small victories and success." She looked up at him with a wide smile. "Hell yeah! I wonder if my azaleas bloomed?" She asked herself as she flipped her card back over, handing the deck to Keith.

Keith took a deep breath, taking in the positive presence around him and shuffling the cards. Doing the same thing as Pidge, he flipped over the top card. "Ace of cups... Something's about to happen and I have to trust my inner feelings and heart to lead the way. What...?" Keith asked quietly. Something would be happening in his near future, but what?

"Y'know, the ace of cups can also indicate new love in your future." Pidge nudged him in the arm, grinning. Keith snorted.

"Ha! Not happening." Keith replied, putting the card back into the stack and returning it to its original place on the table. He grabbed a small piece of rose quartz just in case, though, since Pidge was always concerningly accurate. He slipped it into his back pocket before Pidge saw, walking out of the room and locking it behind them. Pidge ran to the front of the store, unlocking the front door and flipping over the 'OPEN' sign. Keith slipped on his black apron, tying the red strings behind his neck and back. He tied back his long, black hair, sighing quietly as he began setting up shop for the day.

Within ten minutes of the shop opening for the day, they already had their first customer. Allura would be by later that morning, so Keith already knew it wasn't her. They had a few regulars here and there, but nobody buys a plant every day, so they usually only saw them once or twice every few weeks for some soil or plant food. Keith looked up from trimming a small rose bush waiting to be picked up, seeing a boy he's never seen around town before. He had dark, chocolate skin, and deep brunette hair to match. Against his dark skin laid clusters of freckles, reminding Keith of the night sky when he and Pidge sat on the roof after hours. He had dazzling blue eyes to tie it all together, and he wore a soft, perfect smile with nearly blinding white teeth. Keith felt his face heat up as he stared at the stranger, the plants around him growing and blooming in response. All of Keith's work on the bush went down the drain, because the bush was now almost noticeably bigger than before. Observing from a distance, Pidge smirked. "The cards don't lie, Keith," she muttered under her breath.

"Hi, I'm Lance, I work at the shop across the street. Do you have any foxgloves?"


	2. The Chunk of Rose Quartz

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith decides to give the new guy, Lance, a gift in a sad effort to flirt while he tries to figure out Lance's sexuality.

"F-Foxgloves...?" Keith whispered, his mind immediately going blank. "U-Uh, we... Um..." 

"Yes, we have foxgloves. They're next to you." Pidge interrupted, motioning next to the brunette named Lance. "We have a few ranging from white to magenta, take your pick." 

"Ah, thank you!" Lance replied with a warm smile, turning over his shoulder and crouching down to inspect the flowers. Keith shook his head, returning to reality. He needed to take action if he wanted this guy coming back. Maybe use a love spell on him? No, that's just wrong. What if Lance was straight? The dark blue nail polish indicated he probably wasn't, but he could have sisters or a girlfriend and he allowed them to do it. Keith was overthinking. Again. Maybe investigating wouldn't hurt. How would he go about it, though? 'Hey, man, do you like boys?' probably wasn't the way to go. Pidge was easy, not really having a specific preference. Everybody around Keith said they knew he was gay from the moment they met him, which he used to take offence to but he no longer did. It was almost a compliment in his book, knowing he didn't want to be romantically associated with any female on this planet. Not even space, if there were other life forms in space. Of course there were, Keith thought, I've seen too much evidence for it not to be true. He shook his head again, clearing his head once more and realizing that Lance was standing in front of him with a white foxglove plant. "Still with me?" Lance asked, waving his hand in front of Keith's face playfully. His eyes widened.

"Y-Yeah, um, what did you say?"

"I'd like to buy this one."

"O-Of course, I'll ring you up," Keith replied, sighing quietly at himself as he typed some numbers into the register. "$29.31. Actually, since this is your first time here, I'll give you a little gift." Keith added, bolting from the register to unlock the back door. He slipped in, closing it behind him, and opening some drawers until he found some chunks of rose quartz. On any normal day, Keith would have found the rock in seconds, but Lance was currently clouding his thoughts. He grabbed the piece he felt the most drawn to, grabbing a leather cord from the back of the drawer, and wrapping it around the rock to make a simple necklace. He tied the ends, completing it as he walked back out. He grabbed Lance's hand without realizing until after, placing it in his hand. He felt his face heat up at the contact, closing Lance's hand around the necklace. "On the house, no charge. Enjoy your plant. Do you need care instructions?" 

"I think I got it, we used to have a lot of it growing around my house before we moved."

"You moved? From where?"

"That's not important, I doubt you've heard of it anyways. It's a really small town. But thank you for the foxglove! Did you guys know you're the only flower shop in town for miles?" Lance commented as he inspected the necklace, slipping it around his neck. The rock sat on his chest, Keith immediately feeling the energy from it. 

"Y-Yeah, we've been here for a couple of years. It's pretty quiet here until Valentine's Day, then we're jam packed with orders. At least we have a few months to prepare." Keith joked, his heart melting as Lance had already put on the necklace. 

"Yeah, I could see that being stressful. Oh, and I didn't catch your name...?"

"Keith. Keith Kogane. And that's Katie, we usually call her Pidge because of her brother, though." Keith replied, motioning towards Pidge who waved gently and went back to work. 

"Nice to meet you guys. Like I said earlier, I run the shop across the road with my buddy Hunk when he's not working at his own place. You should stop by sometime." Lance suggested as he picked up the plant delicately, giving Keith one last dazzling smile before turning and leaving the shop.

Keith stood at the counter for a moment, his mind black as he tried processing what had just happened. It took Pidge snapping her fingers in front of his face to get his attention. 

"Hey, quit your gay pining for two seconds and help me repot the lavender." 

"I'm not gay pining."

"Hell yeah you are, you look like the red snapdragon exactly. Why don't you get his number or something?" Pidge shot back, walking with him to the lavender. 

"Katie I don't even know if he's queer. Like, at all." 

"Keith you're a dumbass, I can tell he was definitely interested. He said two words to me, his eyes were completely locked on you. He invited you to his shop. If you don't either get his number or give him yours by Friday night I'm telling Shiro. He'll definitely do something ab-"

"You wouldn't."

"Yes I would, your gay pining is painful to be around." 

"I hope you fall down the stairs." 

"I hope your snapdragons die."

"Bitch." Keith chuckled, Pidge giving a soft laugh in return as they playfully shoved eachother around for a moment. He assisted her with the repotting, helping her clean up before returning to his bush. 

Pidge looked over at him. "I could take over for ten minutes if you wanted to go over there."

"I'm not going over there immediately, that would look weird and desperate. Maybe after shop closes if they're open." 

"You're pathetic."

\---

Allura stopped by at around 10:30, her bird-covered arms exposed with the tank top she was wearing that day. The ones on her thigh were exposed as well with her shorts. It must be a warm day out. "These are perfect! Thank you Keith, Katie." Allura gushed, smiling widely. She ran the leaves between her fingers, the plant visibly perking up upon contact. "Is this one enchanted, too?" 

"Yeah, Pidge wanted to do it this time so I left it to her. Hopefully she didn't mess it up." Keith laughed, earning a shove from Pidge. 

"I'm sure she did lovely." Allura smiled. 

"Have you seen Shiro today?" Keith asked as he trimmed another plant. 

"I'm actually about to visit him, why?"

"Just curious, tell him I'm gonna be home late if you could." 

"Of course, Keith. Why, if I may ask?" Allura inquired, Keith covering Pidge's mouth as she was about to blurt something out.

"There's a new-ish shop across the street, thought I'd poke in and see what they have." 

"Wonderful! Maybe I'll stop by on my way out. You two be safe and don't kill eachother, I'll have two brothers wondering if I decided to hex you today." Allura giggled, taking her decorated potted plant and leaving the store. 

"She'll do it someday."

"Oh yeah, I know."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn't go to school today, so i decided to do an update! i know there's a lot of dialogue, i'm sorry :( if you have any suggestions on what i should do next in the story, send them to my instagram (@hime.gure) or comment them below! like i said in the last chapter, i'm not really sure where it's going, so suggestions are appreciated! thank you!!


	3. The Store by the Sea Shore and The Candle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith decides to stop by Lance's shop after work and start to get to know him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> long time no update! i've had a lot of stuff come up in my life lately so please forgive me! i've been wanting to update for a while but haven't had the time or motivation to do it :( anyways i hope you enjoy this chapter!

After Katie cleaned up the store a bit, she met Keith in the back of the rock room. Her eyes glowed faintly as the vine tattoos on her arms began to take on a physical form, lifting off of her arms as vines as she picked up various rocks and gems off of the shelves. She brought them close to her face to inspect them, the faint amber glow from her eyes reflecting on the shiny surface of the gems. 

"So, are you gonna visit the guy across the street?"

"Yeah. Figured I'd at least figure out if he's at least interested in guys before I get emotionally invested." Keith shrugged, grabbing a small piece of sunstone and putting it in his pocket. "Let this help me, please." He muttered under his breath.

"Don't need another Rolo situation. You guys just flirted but you still just got too attached. He was also high off of his ass."

"You don't need to remind me."

"Taking a trip down memory lane." Pidge snorted, setting the crystals back down. She used the vines to shuffle the tarot deck a couple of times before returning the vines to ink on her arms. "If you ask me, there's no way he's completely straight. Maybe a little bit, but not completely. My gaydar was activated. Yours seems to be broken."

"My gaydar is working just fine, I'm just cautious. Besides, even if he isn't queer and I don't end up going out with him or anything, I'd like to keep him around as a customer." 

"Yeah, yeah, whatever you say. Listen, I was thinking of cutting my hair short. What do you think?" Katie asked, running her hands through her hair as she imagined what it would be like having shoulder-length hair. Keith chuckled.

"Nah, you look great with longer hair. You'd look a lot like your brother if you chopped it off. Want me to start calling you Mathematics Holt?" 

"God no. Forget I asked, that's all I needed to hear." 

"Exactly. Well, I'm gonna head out, don't burn the place down and text me if you need anything." 

"See ya, Keith."

Keith sighed contently as he walked out of the room, immediately feeling the energy from the crystals leaving him as he walked further and further away from the room. He walked out of the front door, flipping the sign to 'CLOSED' before closing the door and locking it behind him. Keith put his key in his pocket, biting his lip nervously. He looked up ahead at the shop across the street, seeing the boy from earlier lifting boxes and stocking shelves. He didn't have a 'CLOSED' sign up, so he might still be open? Keith decided to risk it. He made his way across the street, stopping in front of the door. He took in a deep breath, clutching the sunstone in his hand. It certainly helped.

Keith held the doorknob, hesitating for only a second before turning it and walking in. He just about choked seeing who was standing in front of the register, her arms crossed as she was engaged in a conversation with Lance. Was. 

She turned and saw Keith, immediately looking unimpressed.

"Nyma? The hell are you doing here?" 

"I could ask you the same, Kogane."

"Oh, you two know each other?" Lance laughed nervously, standing between the two. 

"That's a nice way of putting it." Nyma snarled, flipping her hair behind her shoulder. Nyma and Keith were not on the best of terms. They never were, actually. They only had a mutual friend, which was Rolo.

"That's great! What a small world. What brings you here, Keith?" Lance interjected, sensing the tension. He waited a moment before setting out his stock of candles, lighting the one by the register. It sat on top of a glass display case, showing various seashells, dried starfish, and other various ocean objects Lance had collected himself. 

"W-Well, I just closed shop for the night and Katie's back to her hermit hole upstairs so I decided to come by before I headed home," Keith replied, giving a soft smile as he turned to face Lance. "This is a nice little shop, it's very home-y."

"Thank you, I was trying to get that feel. Well, since we just opened, I hate to ask you this but would you be interested in buying anything? Who knows, I might throw in a special little gift like you did for me earlier." Lance said as he tossed the cardboard box into the back room. He had a soft yet warm smile as he organized his stocks and decorated the store. There were various cool-toned colored bottles scattered around the shelves of the store, and a few wooden wood chimes hung from the ceiling, similar to the terrariums and hanging plants Keith grew in the store. He also had some of the walls decorated with tan, thick-roped fish netting and lights strung up on the ceiling with circular bulbs. They emitted a warm glow. 

"Yeah, definitely. How are your foxgloves?" Keith asked as he strolled around the store. 

"Still beautiful, you take really good care of your plants."

"T-Thank you. I figured that I should take care of my plants as if they were my children or something, sometimes I take more care of my plants than myself." Keith chuckled softly as he picked up a candle, reading the hand-made label. Vanilla sea breeze. 

"I wouldn't be able to tell," Lance replied without thinking, blushing lightly. The freckles on his cheeks really stood out now, Keith felt a pang in his heart. This boy was too attractive for his own good. Wait, did he just compliment Keith? "I-I mean, if you take that much care and consideration into your plants, you must be taking care of yourself relatively well." That didn't really save Lance, but who really cared?

"That's partially true. I think I'm gonna go with this candle, I usually don't carry too much cash with me." Keith replied, his light blush very apparent on his pale skin. 

"Sounds good. If you flip over the jar and look on the bottom, you'll be able to see who made it. All of the things made here are hand-made by either me, Hunk, or my family. I have a lot of brothers and sisters, and the recipes I use for my candles and cosmetic products all come from my mom. They've been passed down for generations," Lance smiled, jogging behind the register and ringing up the candle. As Lance handed Keith the candle back, Keith flipped it over, he could see a label reading 'MADE BY LANCE MCCLAIN'. Interesting. "While we're at it, here's a gift..." Lance added, reaching down into the glass display case and pulling out a necklace. It had a silver chain and a small blue seashell dangling from it, and a price tag which the brunette proceeded to black out with his pen. On the blank side, he scribbled something into the small space, allowing the ink to dry as he grabbed a cloth, tan bag from the back. "I don't really like using plastic bags, so I sell these cloth ones you can reuse. Please use it in replacement for plastic." He explained as he put the items into the bag, looking a bit sad, as if he spoke from personal experience. The depressed expression hurt Keith to see, and he'd immediately go home and discard all of his plastic bags just because the cute boy across the street told him to. He was already head over heels. Shit.

"D-Definitely, I'll use it often. Thank you, Lance," Keith replied with a gentle smile as he grabbed the bag. He waved goodbye and began to exit the store as Lance began speaking one last time. 

"Of course. Come by again, I'll be stopping by your place again soon."

Keith was gone. 

The cute boy wanted Keith to come by more often? God, let this boy be queer. This would be actual torture if he was straight. 

"Definitely."

\----

"ただいま !" Keith yelled as he closed the door behind him, slipping his shoes off and leaving them by the door. He immediately slipped on his red house slippers, sighing in relief from the comfy padding of the soft shoes. 

"おかえり!" Shiro called back from the kitchen, in the middle of making a meal. Keith walked into the kitchen, greeted by Shiro cooking some meats at the stove, poking and moving it around with his personal cooking chopsticks. The rice cooker showed a green light, meaning it only had a couple of minutes left until it was ready. Tea was brewing off to the side, which would be ready just after they finished eating. "How was your day?"

"Good, I-"

"I heard you visited the new shopkeeper across the street, who is he? What's he like?"

"Jesus Christ Shiro don't even give me a minute before you start interrogating me." Keith joked, pulling out their dining chopsticks from the drawer and bowls, setting the table. "His name is Lance, he's pretty dark compared to most of the people here. He's almost Allura's tone. He seems really nice and I'm getting queer vibes from him. Not fully gay, but there's hope." 

"Good for you, Keith. Maybe you'll finally break your single streak after all these years."

"That's what I'm aiming for. Did you know Katie was considering cutting her hair?" 

"She'd look like her brother, minus the glasses." 

"That's what I told her!"

"What's in the bag?" 

"I bought a candle from Lance, it smells nice. He gave me this necklace, too..." Keith trailed off, pulling the candle out and inspecting the necklace. He flipped over the blacked-out price tag, knowing he scribbled something into the blank space.

There lied the number of Lance McClain, and Keith's heart nearly dropped from his chest. 

"You look like you've seen a ghost, Akira." 

"...He gave me his number."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ただいま - Tadaima - I'm home 
> 
> おかえり - Okaeri - Welcome home


	4. Not Quite a Language Barrier

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith decides to text Lance and they both discover they speak completely different languages.

Dinner went as usual in the Brogane house (as others had nicknamed it; it was quite clever if you asked Keith or Shiro. Before, they would have just referred to it as the Shiro-Kogane household, or even as simple as the 'gane' house), a relatively quiet dinner with some small talk about their days. Shiro and Allura went down to the beach after he helped her plant her newest addition to her homely apartment. Keith, like Katie, used a vine, which creeped out from the hem of his neckline, to grab a piece of meat to put on his plate. Shiro told him 'no plants at the table'. It was normal to Keith. Others would be concerned. But then again, nobody outside their small circle (Keith, Shiro, Katie, Matt, Allura, Coran, and Alfor) knew about the plants, let alone the magic.

 

Oh god, should he tell Lance?

 

Worry about it some other time. They only just met today, Keith needs to see if Lance is even worth pursuing.

 

After dinner, Keith cleaned up the table and helped his brother out with putting away any leftovers. Keith smuggled another bowl of rice up to his room with a pair of disposable chopsticks, thanking Shiro for the meal. He walked into his room, greeted by numerous hanging terrariums and his black cat chirruping a greeting to him. Walking over, he ran his hand over the long, black fur of Aka, who purred in response. He closed his eyes and tucked his head once more, going back to sleep. Keith's heart melted a bit, his cat was probably the only thing he loved more than his plants. He sat at the head of his bed, crossing his legs and placing his rice bowl in the space between them. Keith placed the chopsticks across the rim of the bowl, pulling out his phone and the necklace out of his pocket. He glanced between his screen and the tag as he entered the number into his messaging app, his heart rate picking up a bit out of developing anxiety.

 

_ねえ、これはキースです。あなたの一日はどうでした？_

 

Keith's eyes widened as he pressed send, realizing he still had his Japanese Hiragana keyboard open. Keith's off to a great start. 

 

_i'm so sorry about that, my brother and i use japanese a lot of the time and i still had my keyboard open. this is keith from today._

 

It didn't take Lance long to reply, which was probably a good sign. 

 

_//no te preocupes, hablamos español en mi casa, entonces yo sabe la problema. este, eres japonese?_

 

_...what_

 

_//no worries, we  use spanish in my house so i get the language thing. so you're japanese?_

 

_yeah, my brother was born in japan but i was born here in america. his family came here when he was about five, and i'm gonna start rambling if i don't cut myself off now._

 

_//so you're a rambler? you're in luck, i'm a listener_

 

And Keith was already way too attached.

 

\----

 

By the end of the night, Keith had learned a lot about Lance, and the same went for Lance. Keith walked back downstairs, throwing out his chopsticks and setting his empty rice bowl in the sink. Aka silently walked downstairs, circling Keith's feet any time he stopped. He filled a large bottle with water, returning to his room and watering his plants. Like this morning, they blossomed minutely in appreciation. He pulled out a stick of incense, gently placing it on his incense tray. He snapped his fingers and the stick went alight, Keith gently blowing it out after a few seconds. A gentle string of smoke rose as the incense slowly burned, Keith taking a deep breath and relaxing at the familiar scent. Keith slid open his window, sitting down in front of it, his back facing the window. He took his earlier position, Aka now walking over and sitting in his lap. The candle Lance sold him from earlier sat at his bedside table, the wit unlit. He didn't want to burn it just yet.

 

Keith's attention was brought back to his phone when he felt it buzz in his pocket. There was a light clang as the phone vibrated next to the rock, immediately taking it out and setting it beside him. He then grabbed his phone, clicking it on and seeing a message from Lance.

 

_//hunk's gonna be working with me tomorrow and he's bringing some treats from his bakery, you should come by if you can. are you allergic to anything?_

 

_i'm lactose intolerant, that's about it._

 

_//good to know. see you tomorrow?_

 

_definitely._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ねえ、これはキースです。あなたの一日はどうでした？ - hey, this is keith. how was your day?
> 
> no te preocupes, hablamos español en mi casa, entonces yo sabe la problema. este, eres japonese? - no worries, we use spanish in my house so i know the struggle. so you're japanese?
> 
> \---
> 
> sorry for such a short chapter! i got motivated to write again and halfway through i lost it :( updates won't be as frequent starting now, competition season is starting this week for me (i'm in color guard, i'll possibly write a fic for a marching band au in the future?) so i'll really only be able to update on sundays.
> 
> also i've already gotten some fanart for this fic and i'm?? in tears?? it's absolutely wonderful! if you decide to make something, tag me @hime.gure on instagram! i'd love to see what you come up with! 
> 
> and side note, i don't have a reliable source for my japanese translations, so if something's off that's why. i have a direct source for cuban dialect spanish though so that should be accurate. it's just a little touch i like to add in so i hope you enjoy it! i am in the process of learning swedish so i may slip that in with pidge's family, who knows. 
> 
> i may add onto this chapter before the next update?
> 
> stay tuned for the next update!


	5. Lance's Friend Who Bakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith meets Hunk, Lance's friend who runs a bakery across town with his parents.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and we're now meeting hunk! the next few updates will have him and possibly shay thrown in there since i love her sm
> 
> i hope you're liking the story so far!

Keith set his phone down on his bed, sighing quietly. How would he get Lance to have a romantic interest in him? To Keith, he didn't have a lot going for him. He's pale as hell from spending so much time inside, he doesn't really understand social cues, and nobody around him (besides Allura, Matt, and Pidge, but they learned from spending so much time around the Broganes) spoke Japanese, so they'd always get strange looks speaking in their native tongues. He didn't think he was that attractive. If anything, he felt about average. He was lanky and skinny despite how much he and Shiro eat at every meal, and any muscle he had was from hauling large bags of potting soil or big plants into the shop. He could find more people that looked like Lance and Katie in the span of one day than those who looked like Shiro and Keith in the span of a week. He wasn't ashamed of his Japanese culture and heritage, but it would be nice to have other Asian-Americans, Japanese or not, to know and relate to. 

Perhaps a love spell could assist him in these times of need...

No.

What was Keith thinking? If Lance were to have an interest in him, it should be a genuine interest. Before Katie and Keith dove into the magical world, they vowed that they would never use black magic or use their powers in any form to manipulate others for the sake of the caster themselves. To put a love spell or anything on Lance would violate this vow, and Keith would feel both horrible for forcing that upon him and sad because he wouldn't know if there were genuine feelings hidden deep beneath the fake love produced. If Lance were to like Keith, Keith would want to have him like him for him. 

With that being said, there's no way Lance could find out about the magic. At least, not for now.

Besides, finding people who were accepting of this sort of practice was already hard enough. Their crystal business was almost like the black market of the town, only certain people even knew about the contents of the back room and even then, Keith wouldn't sell to certain people. They didn't agree with the use of black magic, but Katie would still sell certain items and supplies to them for the sake of making a profit. Keith wouldn't. That was the main reason he didn't like Nyma, one of the most known black magic witches in town. Rolo only supplied her, he didn't want to be involved with the after effects. Nyma tried getting Keith into black magic quite a few times when he was younger, but he wouldn't budge. He and Pidge both religiously believed in the Rule of Three; any magic or energy a caster puts out into the world, regardless of positivity or negativity, will come back to them three times as effective. Nyma's already faced this, like when she cursed a girl she didn't like for some of her hair to fall out, Nyma's whole head of hair fell out in her sleep. She had to wear a wig for months until it was long enough to take the wig off and just claim she got a haircut. Despite this, she kept going. She's tattooed herself multiple sigils, some of which were protecting sigils, others being black magic sigils, and she always had them covered. 

Lance would soon find out about Nyma's magic, which would most likely result in him dropping her from his life. There was always the possibility of Nyma outting Katie and Keith as well, even Allura ran the risk. 

Keith groaned as he fell onto his bed, rolling over and staring at his ceiling. This was bad. His life practically revolved around magic at this point, and now he'd have to cover it up, covering up who he was as a person. Shiro was sure to give him shit for it later, probably telling him something along the lines of 'you don't need to change yourself for someone else'. Keith had to see how Lance would react to it, even if they didn't work out romantically he'd still want to be friends with Lance. Best case scenario, they get together and he gest Lance into magic. Worst case scenario, Lance thinks Keith's crazy and drops all contact with him, avoiding his presence at all costs. Maybe even moving. Who knows? 

He reached over to his bedside bookshelf, grabbing a random book with the tips of his fingers and bringing it over to him. He ran his fingertips over the aged cover, taking in the detail and the energy radiating from it. There were protective sigils carved into the cover, showing some of the contents inside. Pidge had a similar book, carved with sigils that spoke to her. He opened the book carefully as he sat up, flipping through the thick, yellowed pages. Each page contained a handful of sigils and their meanings, some widely used, and some that Katie and Keith had made when they were younger. He'd tattoo some of these onto his body at some point, but he still couldn't decide what he wanted to get. He spent the rest of the night reading the book, tracing the sigils with his finger as he skimmed through. His tools brought great relaxation to Keith, where he could feel himself disconnect from the hectic world and just be in touch with himself. Lance would really like magic if he tried it out, Keith thought.

\----

The next morning at work, Keith brought in some orders before Katie woke up and came downstairs. He filled some empty slots on the seed shelves, reorganizing what he needed to before repotting some marigolds that had come in that morning. Placing them in a large basket, he walked out to the front of the store, grabbing a small, hand-held shovel on his way out, and walking over to the flowerbed sitting directly in front of the window. Shiro had built the box they sat in, making sure they would be up for years to come, sun or rain. There were colorful flowers planted below it as well, some of the taller ones nearly covering the base of the box. He removed any plants from the planter that had died, frowning slightly at the failure. Ever since he had discovered his connection with plants, he could count the number of plants that had died under his care on one hand. All of them were due to factors he couldn't control, like the weather. The small patch of daisies that had died were shrivelled up and dry, so he assumed that the direct sunlight is what had killed them. He wasn't worried, though, he'd take them into the back room and grind them down into a power so he could use them in his spells and potions later on. Keith set the dead flowers aside, digging slightly larger holes for the marigolds before placing them in gently. He ran back inside quickly to retrieve his watering can, walking back outside to water the newly planted marigolds.

Across the street, Lance was walking to his shop's door, keys in hand while someone Keith didn't recognize followed behind with a light blue box. The stranger was taller than Lance and wore an orange band around his head, tying back his hair (this was just a guess, it could have just been a fashion statement). They were having a discussion, but Keith was too far away to hear anything. Lance turned the key and swung open the door, allowing his taller friend to walk in first. Lance turned his head before entering, seeing Keith and smiling. He waved, yelling something Keith couldn't hear. Keith sighed, chuckling softly as he set the can down, wiping his dirt-covered hands on his apron and walking across the street. 

"Sorry, I couldn't hear you from across the street. What's up?" Keith asked, tightening his ponytail. 

"Oh, I was just saying hey and wondering if you wanted to come by for a sec and meet my buddy Hunk. Have a minute to spare?" 

Keith thought about it for a moment before nodding, smiling gently. 

"Great! Hunk! Pull out that one single I had you make last night." Lance called out over his shoulder, stepping aside so Keith could walk in. Keith entered, his eyes adjusting from the bright sunlight to the dimmer building. Wait, did Lance have his friend make something specifically for him? He did ask Keith about allergies, after all. Even Shiro still slipped and accidentally gave Keith dairy products without thinking about it every once in a while. 

"Coming right up!" His friend, Hunk, called back from the register. He swung open the blue box, revealing a variety of sweets. They ranged from donuts to individual pies, and in a small bag were some sugar cookies cut and iced to look like shells. They looked like they came from an ad, there wasn't a ding or crack in anything. Amongst the three pies, there were two cheesecakes and one apple. Keith could live with that. Hunk pulled out the apple pie, delicately placed in a napkin before handing it to Keith. Keith thanked him immediately, bowing slightly out of habit. "I'm Hunk, I own a bakery a couple of blocks over with my parents. I hope you like apple pie, Lance told me you were lactose intolerant. Keith, was it?" he asked before taking a bite of his cheesecake. Keith nodded. 

"Y-Yeah, Keith Kogane. I run the flower shop with my friend Katie across the street. Stop by sometime if you have the time." 

"Of course, I need some flowers to liven up my place anyways. Have any yellow flowers?" 

"Mhm, I have anything ranging from snapdragons to sunflowers to tulips. If I don't have it, then I can order some and you can pick them up when they arrive." 

"Sweet! Thanks Keith, I'll stop by. My parents and I all like yellow." Hunk beamed. Keith could see why Lance was friends with him, he seemed like a kind and loving pesron. "So does my friend, Shay, but she just likes any flowers she can find." 

"Hunk, buddy, we both know Shay's more than your friend." Lance laughed upon entering the store. He swiped a cheesecake out of the box, biting into it. "Shit, dude, these are really good! Did you do anything to these?" 

"I accidentally added more vanilla this time but I guess it worked out." 

"You bet your sweet ass it did. Anyways, how are you, Keith? You look like you've gotten some sun." 

Keith immediately looked down at his arms, sighing in disappointment. He was never a fan of the outdoors, since he burned almost immediately upon walking outside. 

"Yeah, I was planting some new marigolds, they came in today and I needed to replace the daisies I had outside." 

"That sounds fun." Lance chuckled, taking another bite of his cheesecake. "Well, I know you're open now, so I don't wanna keep you too long. Come by if it gets slow, maybe Katie can meet Hunk, too." 

"Yeah, I'll stop by." Keith smiled, taking a bite of his apple pie. Lance was right, it was absolutely delicious. Keith was never a fan of American sweets, as Shiro only made Japanese sweets for as long as he could remember, but this was delicious beyond words. "This is also the best apple pie I've ever had, maybe I'll bring some Japanese sweets by if my brother makes any." 

"Thanks man, I'd definitely like to try something Japanese. See you later, Keith!" Hunk smiled, waving goodbye to Keith with Lance. Keith waved back, turning around and leaving the store. His heart hurt a little bit as he left, but he didn't want to leave the store unattended for more than five minutes. Keith continued eating his pie, bringing in his supplies after finishing repotting the flowers. He sat dwon at the base of the stairs leading up to the attic, taking the last bite of the pie. 

"Pidge, are you up?" Keith yelled upstairs as he got up to throw away the napkin. 

"Yeah, I'll be down in a sec! Alarm didn't go off."


	6. The Tower

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nyma decides to play dirty by almost forcing Keith and Katie out of the broom closet.

Keith was already starting his work for the day by the sun came up the next morning. Lance had occupied his thoughts last night, keeping him from getting a full night's sleep. Keith didn't mind, though, he seemed to work better when he didn't have as much sleep. The same went for Katie as well, but if given a few vacation days, she could sleep through all of them, no questions asked. 

The sun peeked over the horizon, giving the shop a golden hue. Keith smiled to himself softly, making his usual trip around the shop as he watered the plants. They flowered in gratitude. Katie came tumbling downstairs, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She was dressed and ready for work, but she looked tired. 

"You okay, Katie? You don't look so good." Keith asked, setting down his watering can and facing her. 

"I'm fine, I just didn't sleep too well last night. Jade got sick and I was up cleaning it up and making sure she was okay. She's doing better now, I got some food in her and she's just dozing off on my bed." Katie replied, slipping the green apron over her head and tying it behind her back. 

"Are you sure? You can take today off if you want, I can take over." 

"Keith, I'm serious, I'm fine. Ready to read the cards for today?" 

"Yeah." Keith sighed, brushing off the dirt from his hands and following her into the back. 

Keith followed his usual routine of cleansing the room with sage, making sure to get the crystals as well before sitting down. He lit a candle as well, as the morning light hadn't reached all the way into the back room quite yet. Katie shuffled the cards, taking a deep breath as she did so. She cut the deck to her left, flipping over the top card. The Star. 

"Star... Good luck and fortune are coming my way. Sweet." Pidge sighed in relief, giving Keith a tired smile before slipping the card back into the deck and handing it to him. He shuffled the deck a couple of times until he was content with it, splitting it and flipping his top card. The Towers. 

"Fuck, the Towers?" Keith asked himself, feeling uneasy. He had just met Lance, could it be about him? He really didn't hope so. "Disaster will strike." He said as he looked Pidge in the eye, Pidge nodding in response. 

"Be careful, Keith, something tells me it'll be affecting the both of us if you're not careful." 

"Got it. I'll put these away, you should go check on your flowers. Also, take some amethyst in your pocket today, it'll help with your tiredness." 

"Thanks, Keith." Katie smiled, standing up and grabbing a chunk of amethyst from the shelves and slipping it into her pocket. She left the room, closing the door on her way out. Keith held the card in his hands, analyzing every single detail in the picture. It showed a tower surrounded by sharp rocks, a lightning bolt striking the top and setting the structure ablaze. Two people fell from the tower, along with a crown near the top, and more lightning and rain behind. Seeing the card would make any reader uneasy, especially Keith. While the card could imply the reader is a catalyst for change, it also meant that you were not in control, you have no choice. The fates were up to powers too great for mortals, and you could do nothing about it. It made Keith very uneasy, he didn't know what was going to happen nor how severe it would be. He shook his head, clearing his mind of bad thoughts and his worry about the day. Slipping the card back into the set, he set the deck aside and stood up. He walked to the shelves and he grabbed a piece of jade for luck and amethyst for decision making, slipping them into his pocket before he left the room. 

\----

The day went on like usual, tending to the plants and selling seeds and other flowers to customers as they entered. Keith took down a few custom orders, he'd have to call them in in the next few days so they would be in as soon as possible. Because they had opened shop early, and Pidge still looked exhausted, they decided to close shop early for the night. Katie suggested that they go visit Lance, and you didn't need to tell Keith twice. 

Keith locked up shop for the night, keeping his crystals in one pocket and placing his keys in the other. They walked across the street, the lights from Lance's shop illuminating the road and walkway laid out in front of it. He could see Nyma in the store, a sense of unease returning to him. "Why the hell is Nyma back here?" Keith muttered, earning a shrug from Katie. Keith opened the door, waving to Lance as they entered. 

"Keith! What's up?" Lance asked, his smile bright as always. He waved back, and waved to Pidge as well. Nyma leaned against the counter, her black clothes and pasty white skin sticking out like a sore thumb in the shop. Keith wasn't really in any place to say anything, though, given his dark grey and black attire and pale skin.

"Nothing, really, we just decided to close up shop for the night. We were up really early and we're kind of tired." Keith replied with a gentle smile, noticing the chunk of rose quartz sitting around his neck. Did Lance ever take it off? 

"Watering plants makes you tired? God forbid you do some actual work." Nyma sneered, earning a side-eye from Lance. 

"God forbid you not be an actual bitch for one whole ass day, Nyma. Must be exhausting." Keith shot back. 

"Alright, alright, I don't want you two getting into a fight the first week I open my shop," Lance said, stepping between the two. Nyma seemed to back off after a moment, surprisingly. "How was work, Keith? Katie?" 

"The usual, take care of the plants, sell them to customers." Katie shrugged. "It might not seem like a lot of work to some people," she added, looking Nyma in the eye, "but you have to remember how much water each plant needs, what plants can and can't be next to or near each other, some require special food and soil, it takes a lot of mental capacity." 

"If only I was that smart," Lance chuckled, "I can barely keep a plant alive." 

"I used to kill so many plants when I was younger. Shiro used to only gift me succulents because they're not as easy to kill. Once I got the hang of those, I moved on to other flowers and plants. You just gotta get into the routine of it." Keith replied, smiling gently. 

"Are you sure you didn't just cast a stupid spell or something to keep them from dying?" Nyma joked, smirking evilly. It would be a joke to Lance, but both Katie and Keith felt their hearts drop. She did not just attempt to boot them out from the broom closet. Did Lance know about Nyma's dark practice? 

"Pfft, magic isn't real. Even if it was, I'd use it for something useful, not for some plants that I could take care of myself by being responsible." Keith chuckled, giving Nyma a death glare. 

"There's no way two people could maintain that many plants and keep them all alive." 

"Well we do it every day, and we do it quite well." Katie shot at Nyma. 

"Magic? That's funny, Nyma," Lance laughed, walking over to the windows and pulling a rag out of his back pocket, wiping them down. "The concept of magic is pretty cool, I'll admit, but it's not possible. There's science behind everything." 

"Exactly, science is the core of everything in existence," Pidge smiled. Hearing the words "magic isn't possible" in the same sentence hurt Keith, but he couldn't show it at all. Nyma knew what she was doing.

"You ever try growing weed?" Nyma asked, crossing her arms smugly. 

"God, no, that would require its own room that we don't have space for, additional supplied just for that, and don't you have to have some kind of card or licence for that?" Katie replied. "Besides, I'm not even legal to do that, I'm turning 18 this year. Keith couldn't, either, he doesn't turn 20 until October." 

"Hey, you could make major money with that." 

"Shiro would hunt my ass down so fast and beat me with a rice paddle." 

"My mom would be pulling the sandal out of the oven." Lance chuckled. 

"Did you know Shiro's thrown chopsticks at me before? There's two holes in the wall in the kitchen. I should show you sometime." Keith laughed, hoping Lance would get the hint. Lance's face lit up, he totally did. 

"I'd love that, and I'd kill to see that happen." 

"Maybe Shiro used magic chopsticks-" 

"Nyma, shut up!" Keith and Katie yelled in unison. Nyma put her hands up in surrender, lifting herself from the counter. 

"Fine, fine, I'll leave. This isn't the last you'll see of me, though," she began as she walked away, slowing down by Keith for a moment. "But the tower you're building with Lance will be burned to the ground," she whispered, even Katie couldn't hear her muttering. Keith immediately got goosebumps, going white in the face. Nyma walked off, waving goodbye to Lance before she left. 

Nyma was the disaster coming Keith's way; Nyma was the lightning bolt striking the foundation Keith and Lance would build upon. 

Nyma was beyond Keith's control.


	7. Chopsticks

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance joins Allura, the Broganes, and the Holts for dinner at the Brogane household, and Lance gets to see Japanese culture first-hand for the first time in his life.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the sake in the title isnt like 'for heaven's sake', it's the Japanese rice wine. this chapter deals with underage drinking, so i put a warning before it starts. the events occuring in this chapter will be mentioned again in the future, but will not be explained in full detail. thank you!
> 
> also, this is gonna be a long chapter! i had a lot of fun writing this, and im hoping you like the story so far! i tried to bring in a lot of Japanese culture into this chapter, if i have any of it wrong, please tell me!

The next few days went on as normal, Lance poking into the flower shop on his way to work, Keith stopping by after he closed shop for the night. Hunk started bringing by sweets for the flower shop, too, and Keith wasn't complaining. The two year anniversary of the shop opening would be coming up in a couple of weeks, so Keith asked Hunk if he could make some cupcakes, cookies, and other sweets for the event. Hunk happily agreed, showing him some of his flower-inspired creatons he made from fondant in years past. Along with realistic looking fondant flowers, he also had a talent for frosting decoration; it looked like a flower was painted directly onto the cookie. It was mind blowing to Keith, and he would make sure to have them set out the entire day for the customers to buy. Keith insisted on splitting half of the profit from the sweets with Hunk as a thank-you, but he would only take the money Keith had to pay for supplies to make them. Keith felt bad, but he'd give Hunk some plants as his own way of thanking him. 

Lance wore the rose quartz necklace every day, and Keith wore his blue seashell necklace every day. Keith had blessed the shell necklace, under the protection of the Horned God Cernunnos, of course, and made sure to be extremely careful with it. Keith hadn't seen Nyma around lately, which could be either good or bad, but at the moment, he didn't care. He didn't want to see her, so it worked out just fine for him. 

The two texted all the time, even ocassionally during work hours. Sometimes, it got slow for them while working, so they took advantage of the free time to text. Keith had even learned a few Spanish words, but not enough to even make a sentence. The same went for Lance, but without the Japanese keyboard on his phone, he wouldn't be able to type it out. 

Around noon, Keith's phone buzzed in his back pocket. He figured it was Lance, but when he clicked his phone on, he saw that it was Allura. 

//Keith, Shiro's planning a big dinner for all of us tonight. Why don't you invite Lance over? You've been talking for a while now, it wouldn't hurt to try <3

we've only been talking for about a week, but i guess i can see. he might be busy, who knows. 

//It's worth a shot!

are you guys gonna embarrass me in front of lance?

//Of course not, Keith, I would never. The worst I would do is hex you, you know that (: 

honestly i don't know which is worse at this point. just don't slip him a love potion or anything like that, please? if i want lance to like me i want it to be genuine, not because hes being influenced by magic

//Of course, if that's your wish. I'm much more powerful than you and Katie, though, I'd be able to make one that just brings out his true emotions, not create fake feelings and make him think they're true. 

..........i might take you up on that soon. 

//It'll cost you!

nevermind. gotta go, customer came in. 

//Good luck!

Keith slipped his phone back into his pocket as the bell at the door rang, a customer walking in. 

"Good afternoon, how can I help you?" 

"Do you have any seeds for fruit trees?" 

"I believe so, let me show you the ones we have available."

\----

At the end of the day, Keith cleaned up around the shop, blessing the store with his sage before putting it out. He locked up shop, Katie standing beside him as he locked the door. "Hey, I'm gonna go see if Lance wants to join us tonight." Keith said to Katie, rolling his eyes as she grew a devious grin. 

"Have fun, want me to start heading over to your place then?" 

"No, Shiro, Matt, and Allura would beat my ass if I let you walk home by yourself. You can't grow thorns on your spikes yet, the worst you could do is strangle someone a little." 

"Suit yourself, I'll wait outside his shop." 

The pair walked across the street, Katie taking a seat on the curb and pulling out her phone. She started playing a game, Keith probably knew what she was playing but didn't have time to acknowledge it. Keith opened the door, walking into the store. 

"Hey, Keith! I was just about to close for the night, what's up?" Lance asked enthusiastically, setting down a blue jar he was previously cleaning. 

"Not much, I just closed shop and I was heading home. I was wondering, though, my brother hosts these huge dinners every week or so, would you like to come join us? I know it's last minute, but I think you'd like it. Homemade, genuine Japanese food." Keith asked, blushing lightly out of embarrassment. A smile grew onto Lance's face as he nodded. Score. 

"Sure! If you don't mind waiting about 5 minutes so I can get everything locked up, I'll be right out. Will there be sushi?"

"That's only the tip of the iceberg, Lance." Keith chuckled. "I'll be outside," he added as he turned on his heel, exiting the store. He couldn't hide the smile on hks face, Katie immediately knew the results. 

"He's going?" 

"He's going."

A few minutes later, Lance stepped outside the now dark shop, locking the door and putting his key away. He waved hello to the pair, the two of them immediately standing up. "Ready?" Katie asked the two males. They nodded, beginning to walk towards Keith's house. Lance was half a step behind Keith as they walked, making sure to follow since he didn't know where they were going. 

They all talked as they made their way to Keith's house, Lance and Katie getting to know eachother a little bit more. He learned that, despite Katie living in the flower shop attic, sometimes stayed the night at the Brogane house. 

"Hold on a sec, two questions. Brogane house? Does that mean something in Japanese?" Lance started, earning chuckles from Keith and Katie, "and your parents actually allow you to spend the night at a guy's house?" 

"Well, Brogane doesn't mean anything in Japanese. It's the nickname given to Keith and his brother, Shiro. Keith's full name, Keith Akira Kogane," Katie started, emphasizing the -gane in Keith's surname, "and Takashi Shirogane, Keith's brother, both have the -gane in common. Since they don't share Kogane or Shirogane, but the -gane itself, and they're brothers, we just say Brogane instead of Kogane-Shirogane or Shirogane-Kogane. They just sound weird. So, we call their house the Brogane house, and them the Broganes instead of 'Shiro and Keith'. And as for spending the night, our brothers, Shiro and Matt, are childhood friends, and so are Keith and I, so my parents know Shiro and Keith very well. Keith here has no romantic interest in girls, so my parents don't have to worry about him doing anything to me in that sense. Besides, my parents got sick of having to come all the way over to their house to just pick me up and let Matt stay, so they would just pick us both up the next day." 

Keith's eyes widened at Katie's words. Keith was out of the closet, and had been for years, but was it safe to tell Lance that? 

"That's really clever, Brogane. And I see. Wait, so yiur family is accepting of you?" Lance asked, looking at Keith. Keith's heart dropped. Not this conversation.

"T-That's a long story. Shiro is, but not the rest of the family. There's a reason we live by ourselves." Keith muttered, looking down at the ground as they walked. 

"I'm kind of in a similar situation, so I get it. My family has acknowledged the fact that I'm not completely straight, but they just pray for the day I 'open my eyes and realize I really only like girls'." Lance shrugged, putting his hands in his pockets. "My mom and my siblings are chill with it, but my uncles and other family members don't understand." 

"At least your families know, only my brother knows I'm pansexual." Katie chuckled, looking over at them. "I'm sure they'd be okay and accepting of it, but I just can't bring myself to tell them. Matt found out on accident." 

"Hey, I know I just met you guys recently, but we have eachother," Lance started, "even though we all have different experiences with it, we're all queer in some way and it just makes us who we are. Gotta stick together, am I right?" He asked with a warm smile, erasing any negative emotions from Keith immediately. 

"Right. And Lance, you have officially arrived at the Brogane household. I only ask that you take off your shoes when you walk inside and put on the house slippers, there's a pair of white ones in the corner you can use tonight. We don't even walk around the house barefoot, just try to clean up if you make any messes." Keith stated, giving Lance a reassuring smile as he opened the door. Katie walked in first, followed by Lance, then Keith. Katie took off her sandals, slipping on green house slippers and tucking away her sandals into the corner neatly, Keith doing the same and putting on his red slippers. Keith handed Lance the white pair, which he happily took and replaced his slip on shoes with the slippers. 

"These are comfy." 

"Mhm, I think we got those a few months ago, and they're not used often so they're still not worn in completely." Keith replied. "Let me go tell Shiro we're here." He added, walking off to the kitchen. He emerged a few seconds later, gesturing for them to come over. "We have some tea if you guys want it, dinner will be ready in about 30 minutes. Let me walk Lance through what we have, you don't have any allergies, do you?" Keith asked him as the trio walked through the kitchen. Lance shook his head. "Good, I hope you don't discover any newfound allergies tonight, then." Keith chuckled, earning a laugh from Lance. 

"I'm gonna go get some tea for us, is the kotatsu set up?" Katie asked as she turned to leave. 

"Yep, it's a little chilly out so we have it set up for now. We can drink there. ありがと!" 

"No problem. Have fun, Lance. It's a lot to take in at first but your taste buds will be amazed." 

Keith took Lance by the hand, guiding him around the kitchen as pieces of the feast finished cooking. Allura was helping Shiro cook, so with the four of them in there, it was a bit crowded. Keith wanted to get in and out as soon as possible, all while giving Lance as much information as possible. 

"First, we have this sushi prepared. These have tuna, these have crab, these ones are spicy, and these ones aren't," Keith explained, gesturing to each kind of sushi on the plate. "We serve soy sauce with these, ginger, and wasabi, too. Genuine wasabi, mind you, it's nothing like the store-bought crap. Oh, and we have nigiri over there, I usually eat most of it since the others, except Shiro and Allura, don't really like it.

"And Shiro's preparing the pork cutlet over there, which is basically pork cutlet fried and can be cut and placed over rice and egg. We use a lot of eggs in this house, and going vegetarian in a Japanese household is nearly impossible. There's a few vegetarian or vegetarian-friendly restaurants in Japan, so it's possible, but fish and other meats are so common in dishes that it makes it hard to find dishes that don't have it.

"We also have Karaage, we like the chicken karaage so that's what we make. Karaage is meat deep-fried in oil, and it's really good with lemon. I've also had squid karaage, and it was so good I can't even put it into words. 

"Here, we have some okonomiyaki about to be made, it's one of my favorite dishes and I could eat it every day for the rest of my life if I could. The word 'okonomiyaki' means 'grill as you like', so you can really put anything you want in it. I like shrimp in mine, so there's always a bowl of diced shrimp off to the side for mine. There's also a lot of cabbage, special okonomiyaki sauce, and we usually drizzle Japanese mayo over it for added flavor." 

"Mayo?"

"It's much better than American mayo, you can taste the difference. Japanese mayo is a staple in a lot of dishes, it's not as gross as it sounds. I'll let you try some of the okonomiyaki, I think mine's the best combo but it's up to you what you like. 

"And Allura over there is making takoyaki, and it looks like she's using diced octopus in hers. It requires a special pan, and it's often made with diced octopus, tempura scraps, pickled ginger, and green onion with a wheat flour batter. Along with the okonomiyaki, it's another one of my favorites. I think that's all they're making tonight, unless Shiro pulls out some yakiniku. Grilled meats. And a shit son of rice. You'll be leaving the house tonight with a few added pounds, guaranteed." Keith chuckled. 

"Tea's ready!" Katie called from the other room. Keith took Lance by the hand once more, leading him to another room from the kitchen. In the middle of the room sat a table with a black and red blanket attached from the underside of the table. There was a fancy tea kettle and matching teacups surrounding it sitting in the middle, Katie already taking her seat at the table. "They made tamaryokucha tonight, haven't had that in a while." 

"Hell yes." Keith smiled as he sat down, gesturing for Lance to sit down next to him. Keith set a cup in front of everyone, pouring everybody a cup of the tea. The bright, yellow tea gave a strong, citrus aroma, making Keith even more excited to drink it. He was a big fan of tea, and this was one of his top five favorites. "This is gonna be a tangy tea, just a warning." He said to Lance. After the tea had cooled a bit, they all took a sip. Lance stared blankly into his cup, processing the taste. "What do you think?"

"I think... this is really good!" Lance laughed, taking another sip. "We don't drink tea in my family, they're huge on coffee, so this is a really nice change." 

"Glad to hear it." Keith smiled warmly, bringing the glass cup back up to his lips and taking another sip. 

\----

Dinner was stressful for Lance. Despite having a huge family he ate with every night, this was a whole other level. Numerous bowls and plates sat in the center of the table, everybody reaching and grabbing what they wanted with their chopsticks. Keith assembled a plate for Lance, since he didn't really know what he wanted, and then it hit Lance. 

He didn't know how to use chopsticks. 

This was embarrassing. It seemed like everybody at the table knew how to use them since they were children, grabbing the food, cutting it, passing around bites effortlessly. He picked up the black chopsticks, looking at Keith's hands to try and get an idea on how to hold them, his hands shaking lightly. It was a weird sensation to him, it almost felt wrong. Everybody was in the middle of a conversation, so none of the attention was on him as he tried to figure out these damn sticks. He kept dropping the food back onto his plate almost as fast as he had picked it up, frustrating Lance. After a few attempts, he gave up, stabbing the sushi he was attempting to eat. Almost immediately, all eyes landed on him. Lance's face heated up, he knew he just messed up somehow. 

"Lance, do you know how to use chopsticks?" Keith asked him, looking a bit concerned. 

"...No. Not at all." Lance admitted. "I should have mentioned that earlier."

"No, I should've asked beforehand, I'm sorry." Keith replied, gesturing for everybody to continue their conversation. After a moment, they did, leaving Keith and Lance off to the side. Lance removed the chopstick from the sushi, looking over at Keith for guidance. 

"I seriously feel like a dumbass, I don't know why I didn't think about it earlier."

"Lance, it's okay. I use chopsticks literally every day, I even forgot how to use a knife and fork for a while because of it. Allura only learned recently, once she started dating Shiro. It doesn't seem like it, but she's still an amateur to them." Keith whispered the last part, giving Lance a reassuring smile. "So you're gonna hold them like this... Don't hold the too high or too low down the chopsticks, it'll be harder to control them like that. Right there. Now, like scissors, it's a simultaneous movement, so you gotta move your fingers like this." He explained, demonstrating. 

After a few minutes, Lance started getting the hang of it. He even picked up the sushi from earlier, succeeding in finally eating something. 

"Good job, Lance. The more you use them, the easier it gets. It just takes practice." Keith reassured him, smiling warmly. Keith waited for Lance to take a few more bites using the chopsticks before he began eating once more. "On top of chopsticks, never stick them straight into a bowl of rice when you're not eating it. Always set them across the rim of the bowl or plate, when you stab them into the rice it represents a gravestone in the ground. It probably doesn't make sense, it's just a disrespectful thing to do. And sushi is generally one bite, but some pieces are really big, so you may need to take two bites. It's a lot, I'm sorry." Keith smiled awkwardly. 

"No, it's all really cool. I didn't even know half of these foods existed, I'm blessed to be able to experience your culture. I'll have to invite you over sometime for dinner, but I'll give you time before then. It's an absolute warzone at dinner, this is really relaxing." 

"Really? This is the worst it gets here, Shiro and I usually don't talk at dinner. We talk while drinking tea after dinner."

"You might have a heart attack if you come eat with us, then." Lance laughed. Keith's heart fluttered, Lance's laughs were like music to his ears. 

"We'll see when the time comes."

\----

"Hey, Keith," Katie nudged Keith, getting his attention, "I'm gonna go hang out with Matt for a while, can I get the key to the shop? I think I left mine in my room." 

"Oh, yeah, sure. Just put it in the safe spot so I can unlock the door in the morning." Keith replied, grabbing the key and handing it to her. 

"Of course," she smiled. She walked over to Shiro and Allura, thanking them for dinner with a gentle bow of the head. Shiro and Allura returned the gesture, everybody receiving and giving hugs before the Holts left. In about an hour, Shiro and Allura would be leaving for a night out, and probably wouldn't be back for a while. Keith was betting on two in the morning. 

Lance and Keith went back to the kotatsu, taking their seats once more. 

"Y'know, it's really nice around here. At my house, you don't get any privacy or time to yourself. I have five siblings, I'm the second youngest of them all. My older sisters always pester me about anything they can think of, they'd even put me in dresses and do my makeup when I was younger."

"You have five siblings?" Keith asked, absolutely shocked. "I was adopted into the Shirogane family when I was four years old, so this is all I really know. This is actually really laid back compared to the rest of the family, they were so adament on being the best they could be culturally wise. I went into kindergarten not knowing any English, I got so much shit for it. Shiro was also really rusty in his English, since they only spoke Japanese at the house. If we tried using English, we'd be punished."

"Punished for speaking your resident country's language?"

"Yep. They wanted to keep the Japanese part of us alive, but they ended up having it take over." 

"I know the feeling, I went into kindergarten not knowing any English, too. I only spoke Spanish, but I made friends that spoke both English and Spanish, so it got easier for me with time. We speak a lot of Spanish at home, but we also use English, so we don't lose the other."

"Shiro and I use Japanese about 50% of the time, whether it's face-to-face conversation or over text. We've also gone to Japan a lot, we have family over there and that's when we lose a lot of English. Japan is pretty English friendly, but our family insists on no English. It's honestly a huge headache. It's so formal, too, if I swear I get my ass beat with a rice paddle." Keith added, earning a chuckle from Lance. 

"Same, but with the sandal. I will never forget the first time I accidentally sweared around my mom."

\----

[warning: underage drinking ahead]

"We're heading out!" Shiro called as he and Allura changed their slippers to actual shoes. Allura wore a black dress, the hem reaching about mid thigh and the sleeves reaching to her wrists. She decorated the black with a white belt, and white studs in all of her piercings, along with black hoops in her first lobe piercings. She also replaced her helixes with black rings, tying it all together with a black choker and black and white rings. Her white hair stood out against the black outfit and her dark eyeshadow, paired with a blood-red lip. She put on some white, strappy heels, giving herself a look down before she smiled contently. Shiro matched, of course, wearing a white button-up shirt, the top two buttons undone, black pants and black shoes. He also threw a nice-looking black jacket, his white puff of hair standing out against the dark colors. He also wore a black glove on his right hand, hiding the prosthetic arm completely. 

"Looking good, you two. Have fun." Keith chuckled. After a moment, the two left, Keith hearing a soft click as Shiro locked the door. As he watched the car drive off, Lance returned to the room. 

"What did I miss?"

"Nothing, Shiro and Allura just left. It's hilarious knowing they both think the other is out of their league. Shiro was crushing on her for months but wouldn't say anything because he thought he wasn't good enough for her. From what I've heard, the same went for her. They're so madly in love it makes me sick sometimes." Keith joked. 

"I only wish to find that sort of connection with someone and have them feel the same way." Lance smiled softly, looking over at Keith. Keith wasn't looking at him, but quickly glanced over at him. 

"I'm sure you will, you just gotta look for it. It might be right in front of you and you don't even know it." Keith replied quietly, and before Lance could ask him what he meant, he stood up. "Now, do you wanna experience another Japanese product before you go?" 

"Sure...?" Lance asked, not sure what he was getting himself into. "What is it?" 

"Well, follow me and you'll find out." Keith said playfully, walking back into the kitchen. By the time Lance had followed, there were two small cups on the table, and Keith was reaching into a cabinet. He set a green bottle down, the label written in Japanese, Lance assumed, and Keith twisted open the silver cap. He set it down, pouring a clear liquid into the two cups. He recapped the bottle, setting it aside before handing Lance a cup. "Just try a little, if you don't like it, I'll put it away and get you water or something else you like." Keith said to him, smiling warmly. "It's genshu sake, this is about 20% alcohol content. It's fermented rice wine, I like it a lot, but Shiro has so many bottles, he hasn't noticed me slipping one every few months. Besides, I can usually get Rolo to buy me a replacement bottle to be safe, so I've never gotten in trouble for it. As long as I don't do stupid shit with it, like get in a car." 

"Alright, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try some." Lance said, taking the cup from him. 

"To... You learning how to use chopsticks." Keith laughed, taking his own cup. 

"I can get behind that." Lance chuckled, lightly clinking his glass with Keith's. They both took the shot at the same time, Lance gagging lightly afterwards. Keith didn't react at all to the alcohol, chuckling at Lance. 

"Not a drinker?" 

"Nope, I've never touched a drop of it in my life. Mom would beat my ass if I did." 

"Well, this is a good place to start. It's not too high up in alcohol content. Want another?"

"...Sure." Lance replied, holding his cup out to Keith as he opened the bottle again. Keith poured the both of them another glass, taking another shot of sake. 

Seconds turned into minutes, and minutes turned into hours, and a few shots turned into nearly the whole bottle. It was a Friday, so why not? It was what Shiro and Allura were doing, Keith and Lance were just having their own version of it. They ended up ditching the cups and just taking swigs from the bottle, moving from the kitchen to the couch. Despite the low alcohol content, Keith was feeling a buzz, Lance was a little further than just a light buzz. They sat on the couch, Keith laying across Lance's lap as the passed the bottle back and forth. 

"You should just stay here tonight, your mom's gonna kill you if you come home like this." 

"Yeeeaaaahhh, you're right." Lance chuckled, brushing Keith's hair with his fingers. It felt nice, and Keith closed his eyes for a moment. "Are you completely gay?" Lance asked, nearly giving Keith a heart attack. 

"Y-Yeah, 100%. What about you?" 

"Raging bisexual Lance McClain over here." Lance laughed, leaning his head back on the back of the couch. "I denied liking boys for a long time, I think I was 15 when I had my first boy-crush that I believed in. I never told him, I was too afraid of what would happen. Have you had anything similar?" 

"Well, when I was in middle school, some guys I had class with pulled me into the boy's bathroom and said they had something to show me. It turned out to be some porn one kid downloaded onto his phone. I id you not, the second I saw a vagina, I screamed and ran out. I was completely horrified, and I got a lot of shit for it from then on. I never even tried denying me being gay, I knew it from the start and there was no point in trying to convince myself otherwise. Telling Shiro was fun, since he already knew I was gay. So did the rest of my family, and they tried converting me into being straight until Shiro was old enough to move out and make himself my legal guardian. I'm 19 now, so that makes Shiro.... 25. I was 12 when I went to live with Shiro, we started in an apartment and with schooling and getting a good job, we were able to move into here. Allura helps with the bills, too, since her family is filthy rich. I used to despise her because of it, but I was also young and didn't know how to develop real opinions. I guess I was just sick of being poor, but once I saw her helping us out and getting us into this house, I began to look up to her as the mother I wish I had. It's a weird family, but I love them all. I'm sorry, I probably just bored you with my life story." 

"No, don't be sorry. I really want to learn more about you, Keith. It might be the alcohol talking, but I'm starting to like you a lot. I didn't know it would happen this way, I just thought I was gonna make some friends as a shopkeeper and life a normal life, marry some girl my family approved of, have a lot of kids, carry on traditions, but I don't want that. I love my family, but I wanna branch out. I can't stand going to family events and having all of my relatives think something's wrong with me. If I like a guy, they should accept that." Lance rambled, rolling his head from side to side. "You've got a lot going on, I just hope I'm not an inconveinence to you. Do you like me the same way?" Keith took a deep breath, closing his eyes. 

"Yeah, I do. A lot. We still have a lot to learn about eachother, but from what I can see, you're this beautiful, amazing person who's kind to everyone, wants to make people smile and laugh, and develop strong bonds with everyone you meet. We're two different people, but I think that's just what makes it better." Keith replied, slowly opening his eyes to look at him. 

"I agree," Lance started, lifting is head and looking down at Keith. "Let me do something real quick." 

"A-Alright," Keith began moving off of Lance's lap, assuming he meant that he'd be getting up to do something, and being moved back to his original place by Lance. 

"No, no, stay there." Lance said quietly, leaning down and leaving a soft kiss on Keith's lips. Keith immediately felt the world stop at that very moment, and he closed his eyes, kissing him back gently. He could taste the sake from Lance's lips, but Keith didn't mind. The feeling was indescribable; it felt like fireworks, the flower that was his heart blooming into vibrant, luscious colors as they kissed. It felt so right, it was a feeling Keith had never had with anyone else. He prayed to his deities that Lance felt the same, and that he wasn't drunk enough to not feel anything. Lance pulled back slightly, looking down at Keith and meeting his eyes. "Was that okay?" He asked quietly. 

"Y-Yeah, that was great, actually." Keith smiled softly, Lance returning the smile as he sat up. 

"Good, because I don't know about you, but I felt something just then." Lance replied, taking a long swig of the sake and handing it to Keith. 

"Really?" 

"Mhm. Let's hang out more, Keith." Lance smiled as Keith finished the bottle, setting it on the table gently. He sat up, taking Lance by the hand. 

"Definitely. Let's go up to my room, my bed's more comfortable than the couch, I can tell you that." 

"Ooh, are you a sexy drunk? Tryna bed me, eh?"

"God, no, I don't wanna sleep with someone unless we're dating, I'm just getting sick of the couch."

"Fair enough." 

\----

Shiro opened the door, picking up Allura in his arms and carrying her inside. She was already out, her eyeshadow and lipstick slightly smudged from a night out. Shiro hadn't had anything to drink that night, knowing Allura would wanna go full out, and Allura didn't have her keys with her. He kicked off his shoes, slipping on his black slippers and glancing over at the table in front of the couch. An empty bottle of sake sat on the glass table, Shiro sighing quietly to himself. 

He made his way to his own bedroom, setting Allura down on the fluffy white sheets. He was careful with her as he took off her strappy heels, large hoops, and other jewelry she wore. He set the jewelry down onto a glass plate on his bedside table, getting her out of the tight dress and slipping one of his sleeping shirts over her head. She slept through it all, even as he gently brushed the knots out of her short, white hair and put it into a loose braid so it wouldn't tangle any further as she slept, tucking her into bed gently and kissing her head. He walked out of his room, setting her shoes at the door, and he made his way upstairs to Keith's room. 

The door was cracked open, and the room was pitch black, aside from the square of light flooding in from the window. The moon was bright that night, illuminating Keith and Lance's sleeping bodies as they were tangled up in eachother. They were still wearing their clothes from that day, and Shiro could tell they didn't leave the house, so he couldn't be too mad. He closed the door, walking back downstairs and to his room to go to bed himself. 

After he changed and got into bed, Allura made a quiet noise as she woke up a bit, rolling over onto Shiro's chest. 

"Shiro?"

"Hmm?"

"I had fun tonight, thank youuu." she mumbled, giggling softly. "And thank you for taking care of me after, my hair's all brushed and braided and I'm wearing your shirt."

"I had fun as well, and you're welcome. Get some rest, Allura, you're not gonna feel good in the morning."

"I knowww... I love you, Shiro."

"I love you too."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you made it through that long ass chapter, thank you omg
> 
> i wasn't expecting to write that much but w/e
> 
> shiro was the only one not drunk by the end of this but what can you do lmao
> 
> i hope you enjoyed this chapter!


	8. Hunk's Birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group spends the day at the bakery, and Hunk makes some new friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all! new chapter, this is gonna be about hunk's birthday! i believe this is the last chapter i'll be throwing in before the Blue Moon chapter, so after this, expect for the story to progress! thank you!

_yo, keith, it's hunk's birthday today and we're gonna spend the day at the bakery. wanna come by? you can bring katie n shiro n allura if you want. even matt._

_//i'll definitely come by, but i'm not sure who i'll have with me. most likely katie though. tell hunk happy birthday for me before i get there._

_will do._

The nice part about owning a flower and crystal shop was that with last minute birthdays, you always had a gift to give. Everybody likes plants, and even non-witch folk like crystals. 'Pretty rocks', they say. If only they knew.

Keith unlocked the front door to the shop, keeping the sign at 'CLOSED' as he closed the door behind him. He made his way upstairs, giving Jade a quick pet as he circled his feet. "Katie, you up?"

"Yeah." Katie called out groggily from a pile of blankets and pillows on her bed. The mountain of blankets shifted, the bed-headed brunette emerging and looking around for a moment before facing Keith. “What’s up?”  
  
"Wanna go to Hunk's bakery today? It's his birthday, Lance wanted to know if we wanted to stop by. It'll be our day off." Keith asked, leaning against the wall.   
  
"Sure, give me like... five minutes. Wanna read the cards for today?" Katie replied, flopping back into mess of her bed.

"You know what," Keith replied, thinking about it for a moment, "I'm good. I wanna be surprised with today's course of actions."

\----

Keith sent a message to the group text with Katie, Matt, Allura, and Shiro, asking if they wanted to stop by as well. Matt had work, so he wouldn't be able to, but Allura and Shiro agreed. They would grab something on their way over to give Hunk, to which Keith told them he'd see them there. Before Keith left the store, he grabbed a citrine keychain, along with a bundle of yellow tulips that had just recently bloomed. Hunk had a yellow aura to him, and yellow just seemed to fit him altogether, so he was praying that it wasn't a color Hunk hated. He'd only talked to Hunk once before at Lance's shop, so he was going off of his intuition of what he would like.

Keith was overthinking this.

Katie held the flowers at Keith opened the door to the bakery, greeted by Lance and Hunk at a nearby table. 

"Hey guys. Happy birthday Hunk, I didn't know what you liked so I hope these work. These tulips just bloomed the other day, and here's a citrine keychain. If it gets dirty, just soak it in water and gently scrub at it. It's pretty cool looking, I hope you like it." Keith said as he walked over, Katie setting the potted tulips on the table as he handed Hunk the keychain. He smiled and waved at Lance, earning a flirty smile back. "They're from Katie and I, I just had to revive her from the dead this morning."

"Thanks, Keith, Katie. Yellow's actually my favorite color, so these are perfect." Hunk replied with a warm smile.

"So, anybody else stopping by?" Lance asked, leaning back in his seat.

"Yeah, Shiro and Allura are gonna come by in a bit, Matt had work so he couldn't show up."

"Shiro? Allura? Matt? Who..?" Hunk questioned.

"Shiro's my brother, Allura's his girlfriend, and Matt is Katie's brother. Lance's met them, they're pretty cool according to him."

"Shiro's one lucky guy, Allura looks like she belongs on Vogue. She has these cool tattoos, too, like Katie, except hers are birds and bird tracks. Did you two get them together?" Lance asked, earning a shake of the head from Katie.

"Nah, she gave me mine actually. Allura had hers when I met her."

"That's so cool! Y’know, I’ve always wanted a tattoo, but-”

“But your mom would actually axe-murder you if you did.” Hunk interjected.

"Speaking of which..." Keith mumbled as he watched Shiro and Allura walk in.

"Happy Birthday!" Allura called out happily, giving Hunk a hug. She just guessed he was Hunk, but she got it right, so who really cared?

  
"Thank you! Are you Allura?"

"Yes! And this is my boyfriend, Shiro. He's also Keith's brother, but I'm sure he mentioned that."

"As a matter of fact, he did."

"I'm not surprised," Shiro chuckled. “Here’s these, we hope you like these, we weren’t sure what to get you.”

“Thank you so much!”

They all heard a faint ding in the background, and Hunk stood up.

"The cupcakes must be ready, I'll be right back." Hunk called out to them as he walked into the back.

"Even on his birthday he's still baking..." Katie mumbled.

"Yeah, Hunk really likes baking. He's also a really cool engineer, he can make anything you can imagine. He wanted us to decorate them with him, is that okay?" Lance asked, looking around at the group.

"That's a wonderful idea!" Allura replied joyfully, clapping her hands together. "Let's move these tables together, then, so we have more room to decorate."

\----

After Lance and Shiro moved the tables together, Hunk brought out fresh cupcakes, and Katie helped by bringing out frosting and other cake decorating tools and ingredients. He popped them all out of the tray, everybody getting two cupcakes. Keith got a bit nervous, he wasn't exactly the creative type. What would he make?

"Alright, everybody, don't be afraid to use what you want. The frosting is all handmade here, if we run out I can just throw together another batch." Hunk stated, looking around at everybody. After that, they all got to work.

Katie made hers plant themed, unsurprisingly, drawing vines and leaves with green frosting on a white frosting base. She seemed content with hers, setting one off to the side to do the other. Allura put a lot of effort into hers, making them marble-textured with black and white frosting. She used silver sprinkles to line the edges, making a cursive 'A' on one for her name. The other had an 'S', supposedly for Shiro. Hunk decorated his with balloons of all colors, using different piping tips to get different effects. His cupcakes were the cleanest, probably from years of experience. Shiro used black frosting for his base, drawing v-shapes all over his. They looked like a symbol of some sorts, with the inner corners pointing in like an arrow. It was a symbol from Allura and Alfor, from a whole story Alfor made for Allura when she was a child about space rebels forming a group named Voltron. They defended the universe, saving different aliens and planets from an evil force. It was an interesting story, to say the least, and Alfor wanted Allura to carry on the story to her children when the time came. Shiro seemed to enjoy it a lot too, making his about it.

Lance made his look like ocean waves, using blue frosting and smudging white frosting on bits of the blue to make it look like water. He used blue sprinkles, too, to add some more flair. His were pretty, he probably had practice being Hunk's friend for so long. Maybe Lance had artistic talent, too. He wouldn't be surprised, it made Lance even more attractive.

It was then Keith realized that he hadn't even touched his cupcakes, a blank canvas in front of him. He bit his lip, thinking about it. Maybe he'd make them look like flowers? He grabbed a bag, putting a flat tip in it, and filling it with pink frosting. He started piping petals onto it, the first looking a bit rough until he got the hang of it. The rose seemed to be the easiest thing he could do, so he made them both roses. The second one looked a lot better than the first, but this wasn't a competition. At least, Keith didn't think it was.

  
Keith looked up, seeing Lance out of the corner of his eye. He had a smudge of blue frosting on his cheek, which he had failed to notice.

The rest of the day was fun-filled, everybody sitting around the table, eating their cupcakes. Hunk also made cookies for everybody to take with them, which everybody loved. Hunk seemed to be a really nice person, thinking about others even on his special day.

 

"Hey, Hunk, do you wanna hang out with us sometime? We do these dinners at my house every so often and we make a bunch of Japanese food, you should stop by sometime." Keith said to Hunk.

 

"Yeah, I think you'd like it. I went last time and holy crap dude, the food's amazing." Lance beamed, crossing his arms. A slight blush erupted onto his cheeks at the thought of the last dinner they all had. It was amazing, Keith finally experiencing a kiss with Lance, but he wanted to avoid the situation again. Maybe not bring out sake when Hunk comes over? “Hey, why don’t you see if Shay wants to join us then?”

“Shay?” Keith asked curiously. He and Shiro didn’t mind the number of people who showed up, since there was always plenty of food for everyone, but it amazed Keith how big Lance’s friend circle was. Despite living in the area for nearly his whole life, he didn’t know too many people, and Lance seemed to somehow know everybody.

“Oh, yeah, Shay Balmera. She’s Hunk’s girlfriend,” Lance teased, putting emphasis on ‘girlfriend’, “she was working today so she couldn’t make it to the party, but they probably have plans for later on tonight.”

“That’s not true! W-Well, the girlfriend part, but we’re going to dinner later! As friends! She wanted to make it up to me for not being able to show up. As a friend!” Hunk retorted, blushing a deep red. Keith may be dense as hell, but even he could tell Hunk had feelings for this Shay. “But I think she’d love to go, if you don’t mind.” Hunk said to Keith.

“I don’t mind at all! Shiro makes more than enough food for everybody, there’s always leftovers for a couple of days. Except when Lance came over, he smuggled a bunch of them out with him.”

“Hey-”

“I don’t blame him, though, Japanese food is pretty damn good. Do you know how to use chopsticks?”

“It’s been a while,” Hunk replied, “but I’m sure I’ll be able to pick it back up quickly. Why?”

“Prepare for chopstick practice, because we really only use chopsticks.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Hunk smiled. Keith was never a sociable person, but now that he’s taken time to get to know some people, he wouldn’t mind expanding his friend circle.

“Thanks for today, guys. It was a lot of fun and I’m really glad you could make it. Hopefully next time we all get together, everybody can come and meet the others.” Hunk beamed, giving everyone a hug.

Keith froze for a second, not knowing how to react.

“S-Sorry, not a huggy person?”

“N-No! Sorry, I’m not really used to hugs?” Keith replied awkwardly, giving Hunk a gentle hug back. Hunk smiled widely and hugged him tightly. “Alright, you’re gonna crush me dude.”

“Sorry!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> really sorry about the short chapter! i was on a time limit, more will be added shortly!!


	9. The Night of the Super Blue Blood Moon Eclipse

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happening once every 150 years or so, the super blue blood moon eclipse is a very important night to those who behold any source of power. Allura, Keith and Katie all get together for a much-needed recharge, and a guest encounter throws things off a bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all, so i thought it over and i decided that i would be throwing some chapters in before this one, im gonna try to get two chapters in before this so we'll see how it goes. the next few updates are gonna be before this chapter, so if you notice an update but nothing past this point, go back a chapter or look through the chapter index. all these updates are are just filling in the time span of two weeks, and it won't have any affect on this chapter. i'm really sorry if this is confusing! i shouldn't have posted this chapter so soon lmao

Work that day was excruciatingly slow as Pidge and Keith anxiously awaited the night. They had all of their crystals packed in small bags, along with glass bottles full of purified water, some with herbs like lavender and rosemary, all of which would be charged under the moon. The plants seemed more lively than usual, most likely due to the endorphins running through Keith's system for the entirety of the day.

Lance came in, something he started doing almost daily ever since their first encounter. And each day, Keith fell harder and harder for the brunette. Lance wore the necklace Keith had given him, even though Lance himself didn't know the meaning behind the crystal. To him, it was pretty and Keith gave it to him, that was all that mattered to him.

"So, what are you guys doing tonight? You look like you're getting ready for something huge." Lance remarked as he strolled around the store, admiring the vibrant petals and leaves of the plants. Pidge shrugged.

"Just one of those days, y'know? It seems like the day just gets slower, I'm tired and I just wanna get some sleep."

"Fair enough. Hey, do you have any sunflowers? I feel like my place needs some pop of color from all of the blues and tans."

"Of course, they're in the space behind the shop. Keith, wanna show him the sunflowers?"

Keith immediately felt his face begin to heat up, Katie giving him a sly grin as she faced away from Lance. Keith rolled his eyes before Lance turned to look at Keith.

"Definitely. Follow me."

Keith walked away from the plant bed he was tending to, wiping his soil-covered hands on his maroon apron as he approached Lance. He pulled out his keys from a pocket he had sewn himself, gesturing for the blue-eyed boy to follow. Keith tightened his ponytail slightly before unlocking the other back door, which led to the garden out back. This place was okay for Lance to see. The crystal room, however, wasn't.

Keith remembered when he opened up to Shiro about his magic. It was quite an interesting time, as it had taken a completely different path than he had expected. He had been practising with Pidge for about two years at the time, so he had a bit of experience up his sleeve.

"Hey, Shiro, can I talk to you?"

"Sure, what's up?"

"Do you think magic is real?"

"Yeah, Allura does it. It's pretty impressive, actually. I almost didn't believe it."

"...Wait, what?"

"I thought you knew."

"Not at all. How long has she been doing that?"

"Her whole life, actually," Shiro answered after thinking it over for a moment, "since her dad's taught her everything she knows."

"Seriously?"

"Yes... Why do you ask?"

"W-Well, Katie and I have been practising for a long time now, and I just couldn't keep the secret from you any longer. Matt knows, but I was expecting you to tell me it was stupid and to stop it."

"Akira, I would never do that to you. If it's something you're passionate about, I'll support you. I might not understand it as a man of science, but it's pretty cool to watch."

"So you're chill with it?"

"Definitely."

Keith smiled fondly at the memory, swinging open the door to reveal the back of the store. When Keith and Katie first bought the place, it was a complete dirt lot with no signs of life. They were proud of their work, as it looked quite impressive now. Neither of them had enough experience or power to use their vines yet, so it was all done by hand. They couldn't use a lot of magic at the time, but in Keith's opinion, it made the end result that much more worth it.

The back was now a complete jungle of plants, all living in harmony in a blur of vibrant colors. They swayed gently in the wind, almost waving hello to Keith. He had to keep from waving back in Lance's presence, which he mentally apologized to the plants for. The soft breeze almost sounded like delicate whispers, as if the plants were chattering amongst themselves. Keith would never give this up for anything else, this is where he felt the most at peace. He walked up to the sunflowers, a few growing past Keith's height. He motioned for Lance to come over, allowing him to look at the half a dozen sunflowers they were growing. The sunflower slightly turned down to face Lance, but Lance hadn't noticed, being lost in the intense, yellow petals.

Keith admired the beauty in the scene laid out before him. Along with the plants, the breeze gently rustled Lance's brunette locks. His eyes were a vivid blue, reminding him of the brightest sky or the richest ocean Keith had ever laid his eyes upon. The freckles scattered across Lance's cheeks and shoulders were constellations on the galaxy that Lance was; in the short span of a few weeks that Keith had gotten to know Lance, there was so much more than just a pretty face. There was so much to Lance that you couldn't even begin to describe him in such simple words. And there was so much more to learn about him. Keith felt bland next to him.

"I think this one likes you." Keith looked over at Lance as he ran his hands over the leaves of the sunflower that was a little past Lance's waist. He felt the most energy radiating from it, and something told Keith that Lance wanted this one, too.

"You think so?"

"Something's just telling me so. I can pot this up and bring it over later if you'd like?"

Right as Keith finished, Lance's phone beeped. He pulled it out, an alarm popped up on Lance's screen.

"That would be great, Keith. I hate to go, but I need to open up shop for the day. Thank you so much."

"Of course. I'll see you later."

\----

Keith had locked up shop a bit early that night, Katie holding two bags as he put away his keys. He jiggled the knob to make sure it was locked before they began walking. The Brogane house wasn't that far of a walk, so they didn't mind. They both knew the way like the back of their hands, as Katie had been coming over since she was a little girl with Matt.

One bag held Katie's personal belongings, along with her sleeping cat, laying on top of her clothes. This bag remained unzipped, and the cat kept sleeping. Jade was a smaller built cat, grey in coat and eyes a mesmerizing green. Jade and Aka got along quite well, so Pidge thought it would just be better to bring her along rather than leave her alone in her room all night. The other contained the crystals and bottles that would be charged under the moon. Keith offered to take the crystal bag, Pidge happily handing it over.

As they approached the Brogane house, they could see Allura's car parked in the driveway.

"Looks like she's early."

"Seems like it."

Keith opened the door, allowing Katie to walk in first, and Keith followed. They both took off their shoes, seeing Allura's heels set away nicely in the corner. They both put on their house slippers, Keith calling out to Shiro that he was home and Katie was there as well. Walking into the living room, they greeted Allura and Shiro, who sat on the couch while watching a movie. They both held take-out Chinese food boxes. They didn't feel like making dinner, but there was food for the two of them in the kitchen. Katie and Keith snatched the boxes, along with two pairs of chopsticks, and raced upstairs.

The night went on like usual, Katie waking up Jade and setting her on Keith's bed. Aka mewed happily in response, Jade immediately walking over to Aka's side and laying down next to him. She curled up next to the black cat, falling asleep almost instantly. Aka followed suit.

\----

They all went to bed early that night, the magic trio all setting alarms for about 3:30 A.M. so they were guaranteed to not sleep past the peak of the moon. Once the alarms went up, they packed up, grabbing a few snacks, and headed out, Allura sent Shiro back to bed, who had wished them good luck before they left.

The air was warm and the breeze was gentle, just like it was earlier in the day. The beach wasn't far from the house, only about a twenty minute walk. They had decided to skip the drive and bask in the relatively bright moonlight. The moon appeared to be larger, too, which would never fail to amaze Keith and Pidge.

They arrived at the beach a couple of minutes past 4 A.M., which gave them just enough time to set up before the peak of the moon. They ran down to the shore, stopping a few meters away from where the tide reached. Keith set the crystal bag down, the three of them sitting in a circle (more like a triangle) as they set up. Allura closed her eyes for a moment, summoning an owl with white feathers and glowing blue eyes. The soft blue glow from the bird's eyes gave them just enough light to see, sighing contently as they finished. A rainbow of crystals sat in the center, set up in a circle with the bottles of purified water in the center. Allura, Keith, and Kaite all held hands, slowing their breathing and matching their breaths al to eachother. Katie nad Keith's vines came out, wrapping around their hands and wrists as a physical bond of sorts. The owl sat perched on Allura's shoulder.

They chanted quietly, small markings on Allura's body glowing faintly through her clothes. The vines became thicker and stronger, which would result in the tattoos showing as an even darker green once they put the vines back. They could all feel the energy radiating from the crystals, feeling at peace.

The three of them didn't need an alarm to see the peak of the moon, they could feel it and they all looked up in unison. The sight was mesmerizing, the enlargened moon glowing a bright, rusty red. The three of them were quite skilled and powerful as is, but with the help of the moon, they felt recharged, energized, and full of renewed magic. This was a once in a lifetime experience, the date being marked months ahead of time upon Allura's first prediction.

Right as they were about to split and put everything away after charging up, they all tensed up upon hearing a familiar voice.

"Keith? Katie? Allura? What are you guys doing out here? And what the heck are you doing? You look like you're summoning a demon."

'Shit,' they all thought in unison.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i also wanted to mention that i have another fic in the making! it's a harry potter au and it'll be much more long term than this one. its my favorite au of all time and my friend and i have fun revisiting it every so often, so now its on ao3! here's the link if you'd like to read it:
> 
> http://archiveofourown.org/works/13582050
> 
> thank you for your support!


	10. A Hidden Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith opens the friend circle to Hunk, and Nyma's up to something sinister.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter was supposed to go a whole other route, but @ender_glace left a comment on the previous chapter predicting it was hunk at the end who found the trio and i felt really drawn to that idea! so i hope this turned out okay, and i'm sorry for the lack of updates! 
> 
> also, thank you so much for 1.5k hits! i was hesitant to start this because i didn't think anybody would like it, but i've been proven wrong! thank you so so much!

Walking up to them, Hunk’s figure came into view. Without thinking, Keith’s vines grew thorns after his and Katie’s vines released everybody. The thorns immediately disappeared once he realized it was only Hunk.

“H-Hunk, dear! What are you doing out here so early? It’s nearly half past four…” Allura trailed off, standing up and brushing the sand off of her clothes.

“I could ask the same to you guys. Now please tell me I didn’t just see vines coming from Katie and Keith.” Hunk said, glancing between the three before him. Allura turned to them, raising a brow. Should they tell him the truth? Keith and Katie looked at eachother, nodding.

“Hunk, what we’re about to tell you is very secret, okay? We only tell you because we trust you, and we can’t have the entire town knowing,” Keith started, “and there’s a reason we’ve never branched out our friend group. It just stayed between Shiro, Matt, Allura, Alfor, Coran, Katie, and I because we knew everybody in our circle either did magic or would keep their mouths shut and us safe from everybody here. There’s also a big reason we don’t quite trust Nyma-”

“Wait, wait, wait, did I just hear you say magic?”

“Yes, Hunk. Despite what you’ve been taught, magic is real. Both what you can see and what you can’t see. Potion making, charms, summoning, the whole idea of magic is completely real. Allura is the strongest enchantress we know of in this entire area for miles, and she and her dad are highly respected in the coven scene. Katie and I have done magic for years, and it was how we became friends. We specialize in crystal healing and green magic, as we like to call it. Every flower in our shop has a different energy, a different message. The flowers speak our language, Hunk, we just have to learn how to understand them. I have a bond with my plants, I can’t even put it into words what it’s like. They show exactly how I’m feeling, I know exactly what they want, I can feel when they’re about to bloom and when they’re about to die, everything. The crystals also have their own language, but they actually have power by themselves to help us. Every crystal and gem we own does something, why do you think I gave you citrine for your birthday? It helps you think creatively and gives you mental clarity. I didn’t give Lance rose quartz for nothing-” Keith immediately stopped, blushing a bright red, “anyways, what I’m saying is we use magic. We’re witches. But Hunk, you cannot tell Lance. I want to be the one to tell him, but I don’t know if it’s safe to tell him yet. I wanna make sure we have a strong bond before I open up about that. This means a lot to us. As for the tattoos, Katie and I have vines, and we can make physical vines from them. Allura has birds, and she can summon any type of bird she wants from them. She likes owls.”

Hunk stared, wide eyed as he took in the information. “S-Shit, man. I thought magic was just in fairy tales. I’ll keep your guys’ secret, but I will tell you this. Lance wouldn’t care, he’d probably think it’s really cool. But I understand why you want to keep it on the down-low for now. I never got an answer for my first question, though. What are you guys doing out here at this hour?”

“The crystals have their own powers, and as we use them, they drain their power. Tonight’s a special night, from the combination of moons all in one. It’ll make them really powerful. And what are you doing out here?”

“Honestly, I was just going for a walk because I couldn’t sleep.”

\----

The next day, Keith and Katie decided to have the shop closed to ‘restock’. They were extremely tired from being up all night, so once they finished their usual repotting, trimming, and tarot reading, they passed out on Katie’s bed upstairs for a couple of hours.

Keith always got up before Katie, so he let her sleep some more as he went downstairs to tidy up around the shop a bit. Across the street, in his shop, stood Lance, socializing with customers as he made sale after sale. The first couple of days were a bit rough for Lance’s shop, but once word got around about it, business was booming. Lance never told Keith his reason for opening a shop, or if he even had one. It didn’t matter, because without it, Keith wasn’t sure if he would have ever met Lance.

It still felt unreal; Lance looked like a walking god in the gloomy town they were stuck in. Keith was so… meh, yet someone so beautiful inside and out like Lance existed. He was falling hard for Lance, and he couldn't help it. Even though they were both a bit tipsy when it had happened, the kiss they had was magical. Keith would do anything to feel his lips once more. Lance felt like the fire that warms you up after a day in the snow, the cup of tea you sip while watching the rain pour outside. Lance’s presence was so warming and welcoming, Keith prayed to his deities that it worked between him. He’d had crushes in the past, but Lance was no crush. It was so much worse than that.

Keith snapped out of his trance to realize that all of the plants around him had bloomed, throwing away all of the work he and Pidge did earlier trimming them. They were worse than when they had started, one of the pots actually cracked down the side from the amount of growth that had happened. The growth had sometimes been both a blessing and a curse; he couldn’t get them to grow on command unless they wanted to, but if Keith felt intense emotions, mainly positive, the plants would grow. The opposite was true as well, the plants shrivelling up and sometimes reversing their blooming if he was angry or going through a depressive episode. He always tried to stay happy when he was at the shop for this exact reason.

Sighing, Keith went to the storage room to get a new pot for the plant. His phone buzzed in his back pocket, and when he pulled it out, he saw a message from Lance.

_hey, i know ur shop is closed today but i saw u running around in there doing stuff. can i come by on my break?_

_//yeah, of course. you don’t even need to ask, if you wanna come by and i’m here but shop’s closed, i’ll let you in. i just didn’t want people bothering me about orders today_

_sweet, i’ll take break in 20._

Keith smiled softly and he set his phone on the counter as he repotted the plant. He finished fairly quickly, disposing of the broken pot and plugging his phone into a speaker connected throughout the store. He put on some Pink Floyd, turning the volume down so it would only be background music. Keith felt very out of touch with his music, he decided to play music in the store from now on. He hummed along to the songs, not much of a singer himself.

A quiet knock on the door indicated Lance was on break. He jogged over to the door, unlocking it and letting him in before closing the door once more.

“Hey, Lance.”

“Hey, sorry for coming over, I-”

“No need to apologize, you’re always welcome here.”

“Thanks, Keith. It means a lot. The store’s making me a bit stressed, I feel like I don’t have a chance to breathe since every second there’s a new customer or sale to be made.”

“I’m sorry to hear that, do you want something to drink or eat while you’re on break?” Keith asked, slightly concerned. He inspected Lance quickly, noticing something was off about him. It wasn’t exhaustion or any sort of tiredness, so he pushed that possibility out of the way.

“I’m fine, I’m not that hungry to be honest. But thanks.”

“Are you sure?”

“Mhm.” Lance replied, leaning lazily against the counter. “Who’s playing? It sounds nice.”

“...Do you not know Pink Floyd?”

“Pink… Floyd…?”

“Oh my god, Lance. Have some culture. Pink Floyd is probably one of the best artists of all time. I’m sure you’ve heard them before and you just don’t know it.” Keith replied immediately, walking over to his phone. He pulled up the Dark Side of the Moon album, showing him the album cover on his screen. “Does this look familiar?”

“The prism? Yeah, the rainbow and everything. I’ve seen it before.”

“Dark Side of the Moon, 1973. Personally, I like The Wall, Animals, or Wish You Were Here, but Dark Side is a really good album to start with. I used to listen to Pink Floyd religiously, but I haven’t really been listening to music lately for some reason.” Keith explained, smiling softly.

“I’ll have to give them a listen when I get home, then.” Lance replied with a soft smile. Keith noticed his eyes looked dull, the shine gone from them. He also looked like he was almost forcing the smile, but not quite. Something was definitely wrong. He noticed a black triangle peeking out from the collar of Lance’s shirt, something that wasn’t there before.

“Lance, what’s on your collarbone? Did you get a tattoo?”

“Hmm? What’re you talking about?” Lance asked, tugging on his collar to see what was there. Lance didn’t seem to see it, but Keith’s heart dropped upon seeing the mark fully revealed. An upside-down pentagram sat on his collarbone, Latin words surrounding the circle. It took Keith a second to translating it, his heart dropping when it did. It read ‘The host of Nyma Esther, thy power and bidding shall reside in thee’; Nyma was going to use Lance as her host in a ritual very soon, no wonder he seemed out of it. He wasn’t aware, and it was no surprise. Nyma had to have used some sort of dark illusion magic, because while Lance, not a witch or involved with any kind of magic, couldn’t see it, Keith did.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I didn’t get any sleep last night, I’m probably just imagining things.” Keith replied, acting like nothing was wrong.

“Couldn’t sleep?”

“You could say that.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> stay tuned for updates soon! im almost done with the next chapter of A Touch of Magic, it should be up in the next day or two. thank you for the support!


	11. With Alfor's Help

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alfor helps the magical trio when Lance is in need of help, and Keith still isn't sure if Lance's feelings are true.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello everybody!! i'm currently on a really long drive to utah, so i wrote this chapter while i've been stuck in the car. i hope you enjoy it!
> 
> also, there is a warning for this, but this chapter involves black magic, which often deals with blood or bodily harm. there is a part here where it deals with that, so there's a warning in case you want to skip it!

Lance returned to work after his break was done, leaving Keith extremely worried. Keith learned the basics of black magic itself, but never actually tried it due to the Rule of Three he strongly believed in. This was on a whole other level, to a point where Keith probably wouldn’t find a counteractive spell in his collection of books. Nyma had to have gotten permission from Lance somehow to make him her host, but how? She had to have tricked him; with any magic, black, white, or anything in between, requires the consent of the host of the spell before it can be done. Certain black magic rituals can be performed without the consent of the host, but that fell more under blood rituals and spells that had a high chance of resulting in death. That was a topic Keith stayed as far away from as possible. What Nyma had Lance in for couldn’t be anything more than an intermediate-level ritual, but if the brand she left on him was already starting to affect him, maybe Keith had to reconsider the severity of the situation. He pulled out his phone, texting Allura.

_allura, this is urgent. please get over here as soon as possible._

Keith sighed quietly and unlocked the back room, trying to calm himself down with the energy of the crystals surrounding him. After about ten minutes, he heard a knock on the door, and he immediately ran to unlock the front door to the store.

Allura walked in, sliding her sunglasses to the top of her head. She wore her silver locks in a messy Dutch braid, wearing some strappy pumps, shorts, and mesh shirt with a lace bralette underneath. Her theme seemed to be black today, her white hair standing out from the darkness of her clothes.

“What is it, Keith?”

“It’s Lance. Well, it’s Nyma, but she’s using Lance. She’s marked him, you should’ve seen him today-”

“Wait, wait, wait, she’s marked Lance?” Allura asked, a look of concern growing on her face. “She’s planning on using him in a ritual… Do you remember what the brand looks like?”

“It’s burned into my memory.”

“Can you draw it out? We’ll have to give my father a visit, even I can’t break a bond between a black magic witch and her host. But Father can.”

\----

Alfor lived quite a ways away, keeping himself in his home in the forest. The group, Keith, Katie, Allura, ans Shiro, who drove them, all got out of the car and made their way down a slightly worn path through the trees. It was quite cool in the forest, the foiliage so thick that barely any sunlight peeked through. After a roughly 10 minute walk, Allura’s childhood home came into sight. Despite the forest nearly taking over the house, it was in great condition. Alfor obviously worked _with_ the forest, not _against_ it. The magical trio could already feel the mass amount of energy radiating from the house, easing them somewhat.

They all walked to the door, Allura placing her hand in the center and muttering a chant under her breath. Under her hand, a bright white seal appeared, the white light spreading throughout the door, almost looking like a motherboard of sorts. A series of clicks were heard from inside, and the door swung open.

“Father! Are you home? We’re in need of help!” Allura called out as they all walked in, a large, white barn owl hooting quietly and flying down towards them. It quietly took its place on Allura’s shoulder, Allura giving it a gentle pet as it ruffled its feathers. She heard some quiet footsteps and a door sliding open, in walking an older man with the same white hair that Allura had. Allura was almost an identical clone of her father, with some small differences she got from her mother. He, along with Allura, Katie, and Keith, had dark brown tattoos running down his arms and neck, but in the same grid-like pattern that appeared on the door.

“Allura! Keith, Katie, Shiro! Welcome! What brings you here?” Alfor asked curiously, gesturing for them to take a seat on the large couch a few feet away from him.

“I’ll allow Keith to explain,” Allura replied quietly, walking over to a stack of books instead of joining her friends on the couch.

“W-Well, our friend, Lance, seems to be being used as a host for some dark ritual that Nyma’s going to be performing soon. I think he just got it in the last 24 hours, because he didn’t have the mark when I saw him yesterday. There’s no way he actually understands what he’s getting into, because for Nyma to expose her witchcraft, she’d also be exposing us, and he didn’t mention anything about it. He just seems… dead. The light in his eyes is gone, his skin’s pale, he’s just really lethargic and out of it. I’m really worried about him, and even with the three of us combined, we can’t break the bond between Lance and Nyma.” Keith rambled quickly, pacing from foot to foot nervously.

“I see,” Alfor started, “and didn’t you three make that pact, especially you Allura, to never dabble into the dark arts and to only learn how to recognize it around you?” He asked, the three of them nodding in return. “Well, I hate to say this but you will have to sadly break that pact this one time. We must fight fire with fire, do you understand?” He asked, earning another nod from the trio. “We will go about this with as little harm as we can, since the Rule of Three especially applies here. Shiro, you can make yourself at home, I’ll need these three for a bit. I hate to trouble you like this, but it can be dangerous for someone not experienced in the Craft to be involved with this.”

“Completely understandable, I trust all of you.” Shiro replied with a soft smile. “Do you have any housework you need done?”

“Oh, Shiro, you don’t ne-”

“It’s no trouble, really. If I just sit around and do nothing, I might go crazy.”

“If you insist… The windows need cleaning and I need to water the plants. Can you handle that?”

“Of course. Stay safe, all of you.”

\----

The four of them sat in a dark room, each seated according to a direction; Alfor was seated at north, Allura at south, Keith in east and Katie in the west. They also each had a white candle lit in front of them, which they would light in a clockwise pattern and blow out in a counterclockwise pattern. In the center, a hand-woven pentacle sat, surrounded by stalks of hand-picked lavender. In the north, in front of Alfor, sat a small stone cauldron. Alfor had already put some ingredients, like charged moonwater from the supermoon just recently, a few petals of fresh blue lotus, mint, and a chunk of clear quartz for energy. He placed his hands around the cauldron, the area his hands touching turning a bright red as the brew began to boil.

“Now, who’s the one Lance trusts mo-”

“Keith.” Allura and Pidge replied flaty, making Keith blush lightly.

“Alright, that was easy. Keith, I need you to take that athame in front of you and cut your hand, and drip exactly one drop into the cauldron. While you’re doing this, from picking up the athame and dripping your blood into the brew, I need you to visualize the mark you saw on Lance. Be as detailed as you can, and put the negative emotion that brings you into the brew. Then, with the same athame, which should have your blood on it, stir the brew exactly five times clockwise. While doing that, you need to visualize the brand disappearing from Lance’s skin, and the positive emotions knowing that Lance would be safe and free from Nyma’s craft brings you. Do you understand? This is a crucial part, if you mess this up you could potentially mess this up and give Nyma more power in her ritual.” Alfor explained, keeping his eyes on Keith the whole time. “I know this is scary, but you have to do it for your friend.”

[warning: self-harm ahead]

Keith nodded nervously, taking the athame with extreme care into his hands. He dragged the tip of the blade along his palm in the formation of a protection rune, not enough to break skin but enough to where he could visualize the symbol being drawn in his head. He set the sharp edge of the athame on his palm, pressing down and hesitating for a second before dragging it across his skin. He hissed quietly as his hand erupted into a hot, stinging pain, imagining the brand on Lance’s collarbone.

It angered him, it enraged him. It made his blood boil to think that Nyma had the audacity to do such a crime. How she thought of Lance as her property, and nothing more. This was most likely not the first time she’s done this, but now she was messing with someone he cared about. Lance was suffering because of her, and she didn’t care. She was using him to benefit herself and herself only. Even if the ritual was meant to benefit Lance in some way, the long term effects of black magic were never positive. It would lead Lance down a dark path, one that would be extremely difficult to escape from, and Keith couldn’t let that happen.

[self-harming actions finished, slight mention of after-effects ahead]

Keith clenched his hand into a fist, hovering it over the mouth of the cauldron and letting a drop of his blood drip into it. He pulled his hand back, picking up the athame and dipping the blade into the concoction. He stirred exactly five times in a clockwise pattern, visualizing the brand on Lance’s chest fading away, leaving his bare, freckled skin. The anger building up in Keith’s chest slowly diminished, being replaced with positive emotions. Keith carefully set the athame back to where it was, and he held his wounded hand with the other. It was still stinging and a pool of blood was forming, but one of the worst things you could do while performing a ritual is to break from the circle or the task at hand. He could wait a couple of minutes.

The group chanted quietly together as the potion finished brewing, each person blowing out their candles opposite of how they lit them. Alfor stood up, grabbing a glass bottle to pour the potion in. Allura got up and grabbed Keith a towel, placing it in his bloody hand and helping him bandage up. The potion now had a clear, blue appearance to it, and looked quite pretty in the jar. Alfor handed Keith the jar, kneeling down to meet Keith’s eyes.

“With this, you must do it in the next 72 hours. The sooner, the better. You have to get Lance to drink all of this, preferably in one chug, but nonetheless, all of it. It doesn’t taste too horrible, so I don’t see this being a problem. You’ll know it worked within a couple of hours, try giving it to him on his break and seeing him after work to see if it did it’s job. You did great today, Keith, that took a lot of courage. I’ll sage the room and give you all some crystals to cleanse your auras, and don’t dabble in black magic again. Understood?” Alfor asked, everybody nodding in return. Keith took the jar, holding it up and looking through the clear liquid. He prayed to his deities that this worked.

\----

By the time the group returned to town, the sun was beginning to set, which meant that Lance would be closing shop soon. He wanted to see the effects as soon as possible, so he’d give Lance the potion tomorrow instead of waiting in agony all night to see if the potion did its job. In the meantime, though, Keith was restraining himself from personally kicking Nyma’s ass.

Shiro took everybody home, dropping Katie off at the shop and watching her head inside and upstairs before taking off. Shiro wanted Allura to stay the night just to make sure she was okay, despite her repeating that she was. Keith didn’t blame him, he didn’t really know anything that happened that afternoon, he had the right to be worried. They could have just sacrificed a goat for all Shiro knew.

They all enjoyed dinner together at the table, Keith helping for once since he was home. There was something about making food yourself that made it ten times better, even if it was as simple as throwing some rice and water into a rice cooker.

As per usual, Keith smuggled a bowl of rice up to his room, pulling out his laptop as Aka mewed, jumping up on his bed and curling up next to him. Keith owed him a few pets, anyways, so he did exactly that and gave the cat a gentle kiss on the head. Aka purred in return, falling asleep in seconds. Keith picked up his bowl, placing it in his lap, and using one hand to eat while using the other to browse the web. He watched some videos and scrolled through his social media, although he didn’t use it too much. He decided to give Lance a quick text to check up on him, since he hadn’t heard from him since his break.

_hey, lance, you doing okay? you seemed really out of it today_

_//i’m fine, i just had a rough time sleeping last night. got maybe an hour? i’m exhausted but my siblings won’t shut up, so i can’t sleep_

_...do you wanna come over and spend the night? it’s pretty much dead quiet over here._

_//you don’t need to do that, i’ll just suffer. not like i’ve done it a million times already._

_are you sure? it’s not any trouble, honestly. you really looked dead today, you need some sleep. cmon, just give me your address, i can drive over right now._

With some gentle pushing, Lance caved in and sent Keith his address. He kind of felt bad in a way, he just forced Lance to come over. It’s for the greater good, Keith told himself. It was quite convenient, though, since Keith could give Lance the potion tonight and see if it worked.

Keith hurried downstairs, placing his bowl and chopsticks into the sink. “I’ll be back!” Keith called out, grabbing the keys and running out to the car. He got in, turning the key and backing out of the driveway after putting the address into his GPS.

Within minutes, he arrived at Lance’s house, a very tired Cuban boy sitting on the curb. The lights from the car woke up Lance from his small nap, standing up and stretching. He yawned as he walked over and got in on the passenger’s side, leaning his head against the window.

“Thanks Keith, I really appreciate it.” Lance yawned, looking over at him.

“Seriously, Lance, no problem. I don’t mind, I actually live pretty close by so if you need to come over, don’t hesitate to get a hold of me. Shiro’s like an old man in a 25-year-old body, he was getting ready for bed by the time I left the house. Allura’s staying the night, so they’re probably already in bed.” Keith replied as he began driving home.

\----

In Keith’s room, Lance was sprawled out on his bed, looking up at the ceiling. “You have a cool room, now that I can see it in the light and I’m sober.” He chuckled dryly.

“I’ve collected stuff over the years.” Keith replied, throwing his hair into a ponytail. He sat down on the edge of the bed, grabbing the jar. It was now or never. “Y’know, Lance, there’s this tea in Japan that’s meant to knock you right out, and it works really well. We got some on our last trip, I think you should drink it since you’re exhausted.”

“Keith, I don’t-”

“I promise, there’s not some weird drug or loads of melatonin in it. Nobody’s gotten sick or died from it or anything, it’s completely safe. I used to drink it when I was a kid and got nightmares so bad I couldn’t fall back asleep. I was out in minutes.”

“...If you say so.” Lance shrugged, sitting up and taking the jar from Keith.

“You have to drink all of it, if you don’t it’ll just make you more tired and not sleep.”

“Got it,” Lance replied, unscrewing the lid and taking a swig. “Hmm. It tastes really nice.” He said, looking over at Keith before chugging the rest of it. “I can’t wait to get some sleep.” he told Keith as he handed him the empty jar. “Thanks for that.”

Already, Keith could see some of the color returning to Lance’s skin. He had high hopes, he just prayed that it worked.

“No problem. Hey, before I lose you to sleep, what do you remember from that night we got drunk?” Keith asked hesitantly. He really hoped Lance would remember the kiss, but he wasn’t sure.

“Well, I remember eating really good food,” Lance started, flopping back down onto the bed and rolling onto his stomach, “drinking an entire bottle of sake, talking about sexuality, and…”

“And…?”

“And we kissed.” Lance finished, looking up at Keith. “I remember it like it was yesterday, Keith. I never stopped thinking about it. I still don’t know if you genuinely enjoyed it, or if it was the alcohol talking.” Lance trailed off, averting his gaze.

“Lance, I can reassure you that I enjoyed it. A lot. I was worried that you didn’t like it and that it was just the sake doing stuff instead of you.” Keith replied, turning to face Lance on the bed.

“Really?”

“Really.”

In that moment, Lance sat up, and without thinking, he kissed Keith. It felt like it did the first time, the fireworks, the butterflies, all of it. It made Keith’s heart race in a way he never wanted to end, and Keith couldn’t get enough of it. Keith kissed him back, placing his hand on Lance’s knee without thinking.

Lance gently placed his hand on Keith’s cheek, pulling him a bit closer as they kissed. Keith could feel the love energy radiating from the rose quartz adorning Lance’s neck, amplifying Keith’s emotions by a landslide. The kiss got deeper as time went on; what started as a gentle kiss turned into a messy makeout. Was it the potion? Was this some side effect Alfor ‘forgot’ to mention? Keith wasn’t sure, now this exchange of feelings felt wrong. One day, he’d test the true waters of Lance McClain and the feelings he had inside, but tonight was not that night. He needed a time where no crystals, potion, or any ounce of witchcraft was involved, and until then, he’d doubt any romantic feelings from Lance coming his way. He made that promise to himself; he wouldn’t put Lance under a love spell or anything of the sort. He wanted to be with Lance, but only if the feelings were genuine and true.

Keith slowly pulled away, giving Lance one last gentle peck on the lips. He looked into his eyes, staring into the raging waters of an ocean trapped in Lance. Lance was an ocean, so deep yet so beautiful. Complex yet simple, there was one word to describe him and no number of words could come close to describe him at the same time. Beautiful. Lance was beautiful, inside and out, and the fact that Nyma took advantage of that angered Keith beyond words.

Lance pecked Keith on the lips back, chuckling softly as he brushed his thumb against Keith’s cheek gently. “So that confirmed two things.”

“Two things, hm? What would those two things be?” Keith asked playfully.

“One: I definitely have feelings for you. Strong feelings, too. And two: you have feelings for me. I could feel it, you can’t fake that kind of passion.” Lance smiled softly, dropping his hand from Keith’s cheek. “I hope I’m not leading you on, but if we do get together, I’d like to get to know you just a bit more. And I feel like you don’t know enough about me quite yet.”

“I agree completely. Y’know, it’s really nice to have reciprocated feelings. It’s been so long for me.” Keith said softly, laying down next to Lance as he plopped down onto the bed as well.

“Really? I see you as the kind of guy that can’t keep people off of you, like there’s always some person who’s madly in love with you.”

Keith couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s honestly the opposite. I rarely find anyone who intrigues me and I can see myself being with; if I can’t see us lasting long, I don’t waste my time. I can’t stand short term. I’ve only dated two people in my life because of it.”

“Well, at least you can see the potential in people and whether or not it’s worth your time. I’ve had a lot of heartbreaks and short relationships because I think I see a future, when there was nothing there to begin with.” Lance replied, yawning. “Hey, again, thanks for letting me stay over. I’m starting to get sleepy, so I’m gonna get some sleep. You were right, it’s very quiet here. It’s relaxing.” Lance trailed off as he fell asleep, his head falling to the side as he slept. He faced Keith, and he couldn’t help but notice how beautiful Lance was while sleeping. Keith’s seen plenty of snapchats from Katie that she took of Keith sleeping, and they were not pretty at all.

Keith could already see the potion working, which eased his mind enough to fall asleep. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you for reading! these chapters get longer every update and i'm lowkey proud lmao


	12. Nyma's Retribution

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nyma wants revenge, and Lance learns something new about Keith.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey y'all! new chapter, it's 2am and i really wanted to write this chapter so here it is
> 
> there's mention of weed but rolo is 22 so he's legal so it's fine 
> 
> i'm tired

A couple of days had passed since the group visited Alfor, and the potion seemed to have worked. Lance was back to his usual self, and the brand that once marked his collarbone was nowhere to be seen. Lance didn’t look like death itself, and the life had returned to the brunette. Keith was more than satisfied, especially since the interactions between them became more and more flirtatious as time went on.

Keith came and visited Lance on his break, allowing Katie to take over for the time being. It was a slow day for Lance, so there was nobody in the shop when Keith walked in. They talked for a bit as Lance reorganized and stocked shelves, Lance dancing along to the quiet music softly playing as he swept the floors. Keith couldn’t help but watch his every move; dancing just seemed to come naturally to Lance, what else could he do to make him even more perfect? His dancing came to an end when a certain black-clad blonde entered the store. Keith immediately tensed up, not even trying to hide his distaste for the girl.

“Hey, Lancey Lance~!” Nyma giggled, giving Lance a hug. Lance hesitantly hugged back with one arm, the other still holding the broom. “How are you?”

“Well, I’m doing pretty good, actually. I haven’t been sleeping well, but then Keith gave me this cool Japanese tea that’s supposed to help you sleep, and I feel so much better! I’m filled with energy and I’m not feeling bogged down throughout the day.” Lance replied, Keith smiling at the mention of him. Nyma looked down and saw the absence of the brand; Keith could tell she was enraged, but Nyma couldn’t show it on her face. That would expose her to Lance.

“Oh, Lance, do you really trust that though? I mean, the Japanese always have really weird shit, what if it’s some crazy drug that hasn’t affected you yet? I wouldn’t be surprised-”

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean, you goth bitch?” Keith shot at Nyma angrily. “You’re just angry that your Caucasian history hasn’t done shit that’s actually useful, at least the Japanese know shit-”

“Hey, hey, calm down you two. I haven’t had any fights in my store yet and I’d like to keep it that way.” Lance interjected, looking between the two.

“...Sorry.” Keith mumbled, leaning against the counter and averting his gaze.

“Whatever. I’m done with Keith picking fights with me. Go fuck yourself, Kogane.” Nyma rolled her eyes, pushing Lance away and walking out of the store. Before she closed the door, she turned around, flipping Keith off.

“What a bitch.” Keith and Lance muttered in unison. They looked at each other and laughed, Lance setting down the broom.

“Why do you two hate each other so much? I get that she’s a bitch, but I’m afraid one of you is gonna try and kill the other one someday.” Lance asked curiously, sitting on the counter next to Keith.

“It’s a long story, it starts all the way from when we were kids. She tried getting me into stuff that I didn’t like, and I didn’t wanna budge, so we’ve constantly argued over anything. We’re just completely different people.” Keith shrugged.

“Understandable.”

\----

“UGH!” Nyma yelled, slamming the door. “Rolo, I told you to open the fucking windows if you’re gonna smoke pot in here!” She added angrily, walking over and opening one of the windows in the living room. Rolo sat on the couch, rolling his eyes as he loaded a bowl.

“Chill, Nyma. Maybe you should take a rip and calm the fuck down.” Rolo replied, lighting the bowl as he took a rip. Besides being Nyma’s dealer, he didn’t really have much going for him. This was fine, though, Rolo liked living a leisurely life without the stress of day-to-day life. He paid the rent, and Nyma did everything else, it was a decent living situation. Nyma didn’t question what Rolo did when Nyma wasn’t around, as long as it didn’t get her killed.

“Not right now, Rolo!” Nyma yelled, throwing herself onto the couch. “Just blow some my way. UGH! I fucking hate Keith!”

“What happened this time?” Rolo asked, blowing some of the smoke at Nyma. “Is he getting in the way of you and Lance?”

“Yes! He’s fucking everything up! I just want Lance to myself! And yet, he seems to be completely infatuated with Keith! He probably had Lance under some kind of love spell.” Nyma replied, rolling her eyes. “I had Lance marked for fuck’s sake! Everything was going to plan, then Keith fucks it up by breaking the bond. It’s gonna be even harder to get Lance back into my control at this point!”

“Nyma, you didn’t even have good intentions with Lance. I don’t know why you’re so set on him, you could fuck anyone over here.”

“He was perfect, though! Untouched by magic, just what I needed. Keith’s gonna pay.”

“You about to have some epic magic battle or some shit?”

“Fuck, Rolo, stop saying stupid shit like that. No, I’m gonna ruin Keith’s magic. He wants to fuck with my magic? I’ll ruin his.”

“And how do you plan on doing that?”

“I’m gonna destroy his little magic garden shop. He’s so connected with those plants it makes me sick. I might even curse the plants if I feel like it. Are you gonna help?”

“Fuck no, I’m actually chill with Keith. You go get arrested for breaking and entering or whatever. You need some help, Nyma.”

“No I don’t.”

“Whatever.” Rolo shrugged, taking another hit. He started coughing, so he set his glass piece down on the table, finished for now. “Maybe Keith wants to smoke with me sometime.”

“Have fun convincing him to do that.”

\----

That night, Katie went home to hang out with her family for game night. With her and Matt living away from home, Sam and Coleen Holt got lonely without the kids around. So, they met for dinner and games once a week. It brought a smile to everyone’s face, and sometimes, they’d invite Shiro and Keith over as well.

Keith left early that night, telling Katie he was going to get some rest and come in early tomorrow. Katie didn’t think much of it, and took over shop for the rest of the night. She closed up, as per usual, and sticking the key in her pocket as she walked away from the shop.

Nyma, from the bushes, waited for Katie to leave, watching her turn the corner and disappear from sight. Quietly, she emerged and made her way over to the shop, setting her bag down before hovering her hand over the lock. It clicked, and the door slowly opened. She made her way inside, closing the door behind her.

Nyma closed her eyes, building up her rage from before as she began grabbing potted plants, throwing them across the store. They shattered, soil and plants scattered across the floor. Nyma smiled deviously; this felt so good. She continued throwing pots around the store, even tossing some of the glass terrariums that hung from the ceiling. She grabbed a small pot, aiming for a hanging terrarium as she threw it. Both of the pots shattered, leaving nearly all of the pots completely shattered. She grabbed a black spray paint can from her bag, shaking it as she circled around the store. Nyma started spraying upside-down pentacles around the store. With her destruction came mass amounts of dark energy, something the shop owners would feel before they even opened the door. Satisfied, she gathered her things, locking the door, and leaving one last pentacle on the door. For good measure, she threw a rock at the window, shattering the glass. This side of town was completely dead at night with nobody around, so she didn’t worry about anybody catching her. With her revenge completed, she made her way back home, an evil smirk growing on her face.

\----

Red.

All Keith could see was red.

He stood in front of the flower shop, seeing the broken window and pentacle drawn on the door.

He wanted to scream.

He wanted to hurt Nyma.

Maybe even kill her, at this point. Many of the plants were in critical condition, they’d need to be repotted as soon as possible. There was no doubt the plants would be traumatized, too. Keith didn’t even need to see the inside of the store to know it was absolutely destroyed.

As Keith unlocked the door and began cleaning up the mess, Lance ran inside. His eyes widened immediately at the sight, at a loss of words.

“Are you just gonna stand there or are you gonna help me?” Keith asked, keeping his eyes on the ground as he sweeped up the soil. Tears pricked at Keith’s eyes, but he refused to let Lance see.

“Y-Yeah, sorry.” Lance replied hurriedly, grabbing a broom and dustpan and beginning to sweep up the remnants of the flower pots. “Do you know who did it?” He asked after a long silence.

“Nyma.”

“Wh-”

“It was fucking Nyma, Lance! Can’t you see the pentacles? She’s a fucking crazy Satanist who wants to see others suffer! She broke in and destroyed everything! I saved every fucking penny to get this shop, all of the plants, all of the supplies, everything! This shop was my pride and joy!” Keith yelled, hot tears falling from his eyes. He didn’t care anymore, it felt like everything he loved had just been ripped from him.

“I-I’m sorry, Keith, I-”

“What, Lance?! What?! I’m gonna be drowning in debt because of this, not even a fourth of the plants are gonna make it and I’ll lose customers and clients. Most of the plants are okay and I can’t even save them because there’s not a single pot left I can put them in!” Keith continued, angrily sweeping the soil into a pile. “Before I met you, this shop was really the only thing I cared about! She fucking knew that, Lance, everybody in this town knows it! Why do you think I’m the only one for miles?! Because I care about my plants so much, I’ve always had the best plants in all of town, that nobody wanted to compete with me. This shop is my pride and joy.” He finished, taking a deep breath and wiping his eyes. “I need to make some phone calls, I’ll be back. I’m sorry for yelling, I’m just really, really mad right now.” Keith muttered as he walked into the back room, sighing in relief that it was completely untouched. He sat at the table, clutching a chunk of sodalite in his hands as he cleared his thoughts.

He opened up the group chat with Matt, Katie, Shiro, Allura, Alfor, Hunk, and Lance, typing a quick message.

_hey, someone broke into the shop last night and completely destroyed the place. if you’re free, i’d really appreciate your guys’ help. and any spare flower pots, all of the extras we had in stock are completely shattered. i’ll be closing the shop for the week as i clean up around here. i think it was nyma, there’s pentacles spray painted everywhere._

Keith nearly jumped out of his skin when a hand was placed onto his shoulder, looking up behind him. There stood Lance, the last person he wanted to see in this room.

“S-Shit, hey Lance. Did I not close the door?” Keith asked, standing up but being pushed gently back down into the seat. Lance shook his head.

“No, it was open. I’m really sorry that this happened to you, Keith. I knew you really cared about the shop, but I didn’t know what level it was on.” Lance started, grabbing the chair from the other side of the table and placing it next to Keith’s. “It was a really low blow for Nyma, even if you have a grudge against somebody, you don’t go and destroy something they love. That’s really fucked up.”

“Lance, you don’t need to pity me-”

“I’m not, though. I would be devastated if someone destroyed my shop, and I’ve only had it over a month or two now. I’ll stay and help you clean up today, I’ll close shop for for the day to help.”

“You don’t need-”

“Yes, I do, because I care about you a lot. It hurts me to see you like this.” Lance replied, holding Keith’s hand gently. “Now, I’ve never seen this room before, how come you never showed me?”

“W-Well…” Keith started, biting his lip. He was very hesitant, should he tell Lance the truth? He figured it was time to, there was a possibility of a relationship forming between the two, and the longer Keith waited to tell him, the worst it would be later. “This is the crystal room. You know that crystal you wear around your neck? It’s from back here. Katie and I use crystals a lot, and we do tarot readings back here, too.”

“Tarot?”

“Yeah, the cards of fate, as we like to call them. A lot of people think they tell your future, but nothing can tell your future. The cards are kinda like notes your teacher gives you with blanks you fill in. The blanks are events in your life, and you take what the cards give you and apply it to your life. The cards never tell you your fate, you just use them to guide you. It sounds really stupid, I-”

“No, no, it doesn’t sound stupid. I promise. Tell me more. What about the crystals?”

“Oh, the crystals? They all give off this sort of energy, each one giving a different purpose. The one I’m holding in my hand, sodalite, is supposed to help with clear thinking. Clear quartz is the Mother of all crystals, and can basically do anything each crystal is meant to do to an extent. Its main purpose is to give positive energy, though.”

“What about this one around my neck?”

“Rose quartz. The love crystal. It’s like the Valentine’s Day of the crystal family. It brings out the romantic feelings of the user and provides positive energy to them and the person of interest.” Keith replied, blushing lightly. “I’ve been doubting your interest lately because I wanted your feelings to be genuine, not something influenced by a crystal.”

“Oh, Keith, how many times do I need to tell you? I really like you, a lot. I felt something the first time I saw you, and that was before you gave me the necklace.” Lance gently squeezed Keith’s hand, earning a smile from him.

“Magic is a powerful source, I didn’t wanna get attached and turns out it wasn’t true.”

“...Magic?”

“Yeah, magic. Remember saying magic isn’t real? Well, you’re wrong. There’s some things science can’t explain.”

“Prove it, then.”

“Alright, can science explain this?” Keith asked, slipping off his shirt to reveal the plants tattooed onto his back. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath as the marks gained a physical form as vines. They wrapped around his arms and chest, wrapping around his and Lance’s hand. He was expecting Lance to pull away in fear, but he didn’t.

“H-Holy shit… Holy shit! That’s so cool, Keith! Why didn’t you tell me about this sooner?”

“I didn’t know how you’d react, honestly. Some people would send me to a mental hospital, others would shun me from society, it’s not an accepting crowd around here. That’s why my circle has always been so tight nit. We don’t let anyone in for that reason. The witches in the group are Katie, Allura, Alfor, and me, Alfor being the one who taught us everything we know. You should meet him some time.”

“So Allura and Katie’s tattoos also do that?”

“Yeah, except Allura has birds and bird tracks, so she can summon birds. She likes summoning owls.”

“I’d kill to see that sometime.”

“Maybe you will,” Keith smiled, putting his shirt back on as the vines retreated back into his skin. “And there’s a reason I’ve always had amazing plants, I literally have a bond with the plants. I can talk to them, I know how their feeling, I know exactly what they want.”

“No fucking way.” Lance replied, smiling widely as he got up. He grabbed a small flower pot from one of the shelves, a small, red flower starting to bloom. “Can you show me?”

“Yeah, definitely.” Keith grabbed the pot, holding it in his hands as Lance sat back down. He closed his eyes, focusing his energy on the plant as it began to slowly bloom. He opened his eyes and looked at Lance, blushing lightly. The plant practically erupted in color, bursting with more red flowers, earning a smile from Keith. Lance looked absolutely shocked, and with good reason.

“That’s insane! I never knew this kind of stuff was real.” Lance smiled widely, dipping his head down to look at the flower close-up. “Hey, Keith?”

“Yeah?”

“Do… do you think you could teach me some of this stuff? Unless it’s like, you’re born with the ability and you can’t just learn it. That I would totally understand. But it that’s not the case, could you?” Lance asked, blushing lightly. Keith looked at Lance for a moment, a wide smile growing on Keith’s face.

“Of course, Lance. I’d love to share this with you.”


	13. Back to Business

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance, along with the whole team, helps Keith and Katie get the shop together, and Keith and Lance have a night under the stars.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey everybody!! i bring possibly sad news, but The Flowers will be coming to an end within the next few chapters. this isn't 100% solid, i may decide to keep it going after writing a few more chapters, but i'm not really sure where i want to take this fic after the next few chapters, so that's why i'm considering finishing it. this was so much fun to read, and it's the most successful thing i've written! it only has about 2k hits, it's nothing huge, but every view, kudos, bookmark, comment, etc. means so much to me! 
> 
> if you want to see more content, i'd love to see what you guys may want to see! keep in mind i won't use every idea, and i may base a chapter around a concept, but nonetheless any and every suggestion helps! remember, i don't write NSFW content, so that will definitely not happen. it may be implied, though, so who knows. until next time!!

In the passing days, Lance only stayed open for half the day to help Keith fix the shop. Hunk’s parents took over at the bakery, and Keith got to meet Shay when she came to help for a day. She wouldn’t be able to come in a lot to help, since Hunk’s parents would need help at the bakery, which was fine with Keith. He already had the help of Katie, Lance, Allura, Shiro, and sometimes Matt if he was available. What Keith expected to take at least two weeks to fix was back to normal within a matter of six days. Keith would have to wait for some plants and seeds to come in over the next couple of weeks, but everything else was almost back to what it originally was. Allura absolutely beat the shit out of Nyma, banishing her and her energy from Keith and Lance’s stores. Alfor also started coming in and buying various supplies, like seeds and fertilizer.

On the first day the flower shop was reopened, Lance did another half day, coming in at about noon to help Keith out.

“Don’t you have a shop you need to be running?” Keith joked, snipping a dead leaf off of a blooming flower.

“This is my last half day, then I’m closing for the weekend. What about you?”

“I don’t think I can afford to close for the weekend, not for a couple of weeks at least. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thrilled we got the shop fixed in six days, but six days out of business really set me back. I’m gonna be behind on rent and I don’t wanna ask Shiro or Allura for money.” Keith replied, concentrating on the plant. Lance placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder, a small, budding flower blooming instantly. Keith smiled.

“Let me help, I-”

“Lance, I can’t ask you for money. I’d feel horrible. I’ll just see if Katie can pull some strings-”

“C’mon, let me help. You got me out of that shit with Nyma, this is the least I can do.”

“...Fine. But just this once. I’ve owned this shop for a long time, this will be the first time I’ve needed assistance getting the rent.”

“Don’t sweat it, Keith. Honestly. I wanna help.”

“If you insist.”

\----

Hunk stopped by to drop off some cookies and other sweets shaped and decorated to look like various flowers a while after Lance showed up.

“What, does Lance work here now? Must be stressful working two jobs.”

“Nah, I’m just here helping Keith for today now that he’s back in business. Thanks for the goods, dude, let me pay you.” Lance smiled, reaching into his pocket for his wallet. Hunk shook his head, raising his hands to stop him.

“It’s a gift from my parents, I told them what happened and sweets always make you feel better, so don’t worry about paying. It was their idea, they were more than happy to do it.”

“Thanks, Hunk.” Keith smiled warmly. “In return, why don’t you take this nice bundle of yellow flowers to them?” Keith added, pulling out a potted bouquet of various yellow flowers; tulips, roses, blackeyed susans, daffodils, and other various yellow flowers were arranged in a beautiful dome shape, sunflowers delicately painted on the pot as a finishing touch. Hunk looked ecstatic as he grabbed the pot gently, thanking Keith immensely.

“Oh, my parents are gonna love this. Thanks, Keith! I should be heading back, now, I’ll stop by later if I have time. Have a nice day, you guys.” Hunk waved goodbye, leaving the shop.

“Which one do you want?” Lance asked, gesturing to the platter of sweets.

“Hmm… surprise me.” Keith replied, closing his eyes.

“If you say so.” Lance chuckled, opening a small note that read, ‘The ones in the red cupcake holders are dairy free! We heard Keith was lactose intolerant’. How considerate. He hovered his hand over the red cased cupcakes, deciding on a light blue rose decorated cupcake. Lance smirked, peeling away the red paper. “Open your mouth.”

“Lance, I can eat the cupcake myself.”

“Yeah, but this is more fun. Open up.”

“Fine.” Keith replied, keeping his eyes closed as he parted his lips. Lance walked over to where he was standing, placing a gentle kiss on Keith’s cheek before bring the cupcake up to his lips. Keith blushed brightly, taking a bite. “Fuck, his parents cupcakes are so good.” Keith mumbled as he ate the cupcake.

“That was really gay.” Katie called out as she walked downstairs, her hair tied back. “You two aren’t together yet?” Keith’s eyes shot open and he wiped the frosting from his lips.

“You-”

“What do you mean we aren’t? Of course we are, Katherine.”

“Did you just-”

“Wait, since when?” Keith blurted out.

“Since,” Lance replied, checking the time on his phone, “2:46 PM today. Unless you object, then that puts me in an awkward position.”

“I-I don’t object, just clarifying.” Keith cleared his throat, wiping his hands on his garden apron.

“You’re so damn easy to read, Keith. So you’re finally together. Matt and Shiro owe me some money.”

“You guys bet on it?!”

“Yeah, actually,” Katie started as she organized some shelves, “Allura and I were betting that Lance was gonna do it, and Matt and Shiro were betting that you would do it. I read it in the cards that you didn’t have the balls to do it, so Allura and I made a smart choice.”

“I hate you both. At least my own brother was on my side.” Keith shot back.

“My brother is a smart man when it comes to books, but reading people? A toddler is smarter than him.”

“Betrayed by his own blood.” Lance chuckled, taking a bite of Keith’s cupcake. Keith didn’t even fight it.

“So, have you two been on a date yet?” Katie asked curiously, using the vines from her arms to quickly repot a growing plant.

“Not yet, unless you count dinner at the Brogane house and getting drunk off of sake.” Lance chuckled, making Keith turn bright red.

“Half date.”

“I’ll take it.” Keith blurted out, crossing his arms. “Besides, we have one tonight after work.”

“We do?”

“Yes, dinner on the rooftop while stargazing. There’s a meteor shower tonight, and there’s no better way to watch the stars than being surrounded by plants and Japanese food.” Keith replied confidently. He was surprised he was able to get that out so smoothly, like it was planned. It was, in fact, not. He would have to somehow slip out of the shop for a while to get the food, but he wasn’t too worried about it.

“Well I can’t wait.” Lance chuckled softly, kissing Keith on the cheek gently.

“You guys are gross.”

\----

A couple of hours passed, and the sky was starting to turn a beautiful gold as the sun began to set.

“Hey, I need to run home for a sec, Katie’s gonna take over for a bit. Shiro needs my help with… stuff.” Keith told Lance from behind the counter, counting the money in the register. It was a complete lie, Shiro hadn’t even texted him, but he needed to get some food together if he was gonna provide dinner for the two of them for that night.

“Alright, I’ll be here.” Lance replied, smiling softly as he read a book on different flowers. He was starting to get a hang of the flowers, he just had a hard time remembering all of the names. It was amazing to Lance how Keith and Katie could remember every single flower and plant they had in the shop. He’d get it eventually, he told himself.

“Uhh, before I go…” Keith mumbled, walking over to Lance, kissing him on the lips gently. They stayed there for a few seconds, Keith nearly forgetting about having to leave.

“I’m gonna make you stay and tell Shiro something came up if you stay and kiss me any longer.” Lance chuckled, Keith’s face erupting into a dark shade of red.

“I’ll be heading out then, loverboy Lance.” Keith shot back with a smile, chuckling softly as he walked out. He closed the door and started making his way down to his house, hurrying inside as he changed his shoes and making his way to the kitchen. He threw some rice and water into the rice cooker, setting it so it would take a while for the rice to cook completely and wouldn’t be dry or even soggy by the time it got to dinner for the two of them. Keith would be closing shop in about two hours at most anyways, so Keith wasn’t too worried about it sitting for long. Shiro had an insulated carry-out style bag, he’d just keep the food in that so it stayed hot and maybe take a heating pad from Katie’s room and sitting it on that for good measure. He sent her a text asking her if that would be fine, to which she said ‘no problem’. Short and sweet.

Keith threw together some takoyaki and sushi, along with two okonomiyaki cakes, each catered to the individual's taste. He also took a mini-bottle of sake from the very back of the shelf, wrapping the bottle up with a cold towel and putting it into a plastic box so it wouldn’t make the food cold. He put the cooked rice, takoyaki, and sushi together in bento boxes, putting quite a bit of effort into how the boxes of food looked. He packed chopsticks for the both of them, and cups, and grabbed a small box of the tea that Lance liked from when he came over. Katie had a kettle and a hot plate in her room, so he’d sneak off and brew some tea right before he closed up for the night. Keith put the okonomiyaki in their own containers, sighing in relief when everything was finished.

Once everything was packed and in their own containers, he placed everything into the insulated box, and he grabbed one of his favorite blankets for good measure. It was then Keith realized that there was no way in hell he’d be able to walk back to the shop and carry all of this. He pulled out his phone, dialing Allura.

“Allura Altea at your service, how may I help?”

“Do you reply to every phone call like that?”

“Pretty much, unless it’s Shiro. I have a different ringtone for him so I know it’s him when I pick up. Did you need something?”

“Yeah, can you give me a ride back to the shop? I have a lot with me and it’s gonna be a hassle walking all that way.”

“...Did you not go to work today?”

“I did! It’s just… Lance and I have a date tonight and I spoke without thinking and I told him I’d bring dinner but all of the leftovers are gone and I didn’t wanna bring him over for dinner since it was gonna be a night for _us_ , y’know?”

“I understand. Give me 20 minutes, I’m gonna buy this dress and I’ll be over.”

“Thank you so much, Allura.”

They finished the call, and Keith sighed in relief. Right as he hung up, a thought popped into his head. He bolted upstairs, hurrying into his room and searching for his earring sets. He shuffled through different pieces he owned, before finding what he was looking for; a red hoop and a blue hoop for his double helix piercings. He swapped out his black pieces for the colored ones, putting the blue hoop on top and the red on the bottom. He smiled widely at the subtle difference, placing his black rings in the dish by his bed.

Once Allura arrived, Keith gathered his things, hurrying out to the car. He set the food in the trunk, jumping into the passenger’s seat and buckling in.

“So, you two have a date? Are you officially together?”

“Mhm. Shiro and Matt owe you money, I hear.”

“So Katie told you. Well, I’m happy for you, Keith. I know how much you care about him. I’ll be watching him, y’know. You’re like a little brother to me. I don’t see him doing anything to hurt you, but people can surprise you.”

“Yeah, I really hope it works out and lasts between us. I’m really glad he’s so accepting of the whole magic thing, I was expecting him to freak out or never talk to me again.”

“Like I said, people can surprise you. Have fun tonight, but not too much.” Allura shot a wink at Keith, causing him to blush as she stopped in front of the shop.

“Allura!”

“Scram, Kogane.”

“Fine, fine.” Keith raised his hands in surrender, getting out of the car.

_hey, can you have lance grab something from out back or something? i have all of my stuff but i don’t want him seeing me come in with everything and be sus._

_//i gotchu._

Keith put away his phone with a satisfied smile, grabbing the food and blanket from the trunk. He watched Lance get up and walk outside to the back, and Keith waved goodbye to Allura as he made his way in and upstairs. He set everything down, placing the box on top of the plugged in heating pad Katie left for him. He also placed the folded up blanket on top of the box, allowing it to warm up a bit before it would be put to use.

Jogging downstairs, he grabbed his apron from the hook and slipped it on. “I’m back!” He yelled, a vine poking out from the cracked door leading to the crystal room waving hello. Moments later, Lance walked in, holding a pot.

“Hey, welcome back. Katie, where should I put this?”

“Leave it outside the door, I’ll take care of it.”

Lance shrugged, placing the pot outside of the crystal room. He walked over to Keith, pecking him on the cheek gently.

“Nice pieces, that’s my favorite shade of blue.”

“Y-You noticed?”

“Of course I did, I’ve always had an eye for detail. It’s adorable, really, wearing pieces of our favorite colors. Red and blue always go so well together.”

“I’m glad you like it, then. That’s why I did it. Are you excited for tonight?”

“Oh god, yes. I haven’t had Japanese food in a while, and I get to enjoy it with you under the stars. Should I tell my mom I’m not coming home tonight?”

“Your call, I’d be happy to walk you home after if you’d like.”

“I’ll tell her I’m staying at a friend’s.”

“Good choice.” Keith chuckled.

\----

About five minutes before closing, Keith snuck off upstairs to start brewing the tea. He boiled the water and put a spoonful of tea leaves into each cup, prepping it for use in a few minutes. He hurried downstairs, making one last sale before he closed up shop.

“I’m gonna head out for tonight, don’t have too much fun. If I have to wash my sheets when I get back, I’m not gonna be too happy.”

“Where are you going?” Keith asked curiously.

“Spelkväll.” Katie replied, grabbing her jacket.

“In English?” Lance joked.

“Game night.” Keith and Katie replied in unison.

“I need to go to one of those again, my Swedish is getting rusty.” Keith commented, leaning against the counter.

“Mina föräldrar bjöd in dig ikväll, men jag sa att du var upptagen.” Katie shrugged.

“Berätta för dem att jag kommer vara där nästa gång då.” Keith replied.

“How many damn languages do you guys know?” Lance asked, shocked.

“Three; English, Japanese, and Swedish.” The duo replied in unison once more.

“One of us is always a bit rusty in the other’s native language, but we understand what they’re saying.” Keith added. “Swedish is a lot easier than Japanese, though, I will say.”

“Well, enough of me. You guys have fun, I’ll be in tomorrow.” Katie waved goodbye, locking up as she left.

“Now, we get to eat.” Keith chuckled. “I’ll lead you to the roof, I’ll bring up the food in a second.” Keith added, running upstairs and grabbing the blanket. He threw it over his shoulder and gestured for Lance to follow him outside. He lead Lance around to the side of the shop, showing him the ladder that lead to the roof. “There’s a really short ladder in Katie’s room that leads to the roof, but it’s an absolute mess, so it’s pretty much useless.”

“Fair enough. I’ll meet you up there, then?”

“Yeah, would you take this for me? I figured we can sit on it while we eat.”

“Of course, see you in a minute.”

Keith handed off the blanket, and as Lance made his way up the ladder, Keith went back inside. He went upstairs, grabbing the box and kettle. He glanced at the ladder in Katie’s room, and saw that it wasn’t as much of a mess like it usually was. Keith hovered his hand over the ladder, the metal rungs glowing softly as everything cluttering the ladder lifted and placed itself gently on the ground. He pulled out one of his vines to hold the hot kettle, using the strap on the box and swinging it over his head. Keith flicked his hand, the door at the top of the stairs swinging open. He made his way up the ladder, setting everything down once he was on the roof. He closed the door, carrying everything over to where Lance was.

“My prince has arrived!” Lance called out as Keith set the box down, dramatically ‘fainting’ and falling back onto the blanket.

“You’re too much sometimes.” Keith chuckled, sitting down next to him. “I do have to come clean, though. I didn’t need to help Shiro with anything, I was actually making all of this.” He admitted, pulling out the food and the tea leaf filled cups. He started separating the food and cups, giving Lance his goods first.

“Oh, I know.”

“Wait, what?”

“You and Katie were acting suspicious, I kinda figured it out. I don’t mind, though, I love the food you guys make.” Lance smiled, looking over at him.

“I’m not the best liar.” Keith chuckled, pouring the hot water into their cups.

“Clearly. Wait, is this the tea…?”

“Mhm.”

“Oh, Keith, you get better every minute.” Lance replied, smiling warmly. He picked up the cup, waiting for it to cool off a bit before taking a sip. “Y’know, I don’t get to drink tea that often at my house. Living in a Cuban household means a shit ton of Cuban coffee, we don’t really do tea.”

“I don’t think I could survive like that, I have tea almost every day.”

“You learn to live with it.” Lance shrugged. “Being able to dive into Japanese culture is nice, though, it’s pretty different than Cuban culture and you sometimes just need a break, y’know?”

“I totally get it, sometimes I just need to get away from all of the rice and stuff and I go eat at Katie’s house.”

“To be fair, though, Japanese food is really good.”

“Oh, yeah, totally. I couldn’t live without it.” Keith chuckled.

The two of them sat under the stars, talking about a million things as they ate and drank tea, watching the meteor shower when it started. By that time, they had finished eating, and they laid back, Keith resting his head on Lance’s chest. It was a warm night, comfortably warm. It was just the two of them, enjoying each other's presence as they watched the sky. Keith couldn’t ask for anything more, it was absolutely perfect as is.

They learned a lot about each other that night; that Lance was the second youngest of five, his father died when Lance was only two years old, and despite loving his family, he wanted to leave and live life on his own and the way he wanted to. Keith, on the other hand, always felt a need to live up to Shiro’s expectations, even though he knew Shiro was already so proud of him, he didn’t know who his birth parents are, only having their names and nothing more, and he always had abandonment issues. Along with the magic, that was another reason Keith kept his friend circle so close to him. They were adamant on staying in his life, so he was holding onto that desperately. He pushes people away before they can abandon him.

“But you were different,” Keith began, “something told me that you wouldn’t do that. Maybe it was the cards, maybe it was me just falling in love with you. I felt like I needed to trust you.”

“...I’m really glad you decided to follow that. I don’t want to hurt you, ever. Hey, I know you don’t have a lot to go off of, but if you ever want to, I’ll help you find your parents. I know the feeling of never truly knowing what your parent is like, but my dad’s never coming back. I’ll never get to know the real him. I know your parents put you up for adoption, so I can understand why you might not want to find them, but if you do, I’ll be happy to help you.”

By now, Keith was tearing up a bit. He wiped his eyes, smiling softly.

“Thank you, Lance. That means a lot. I want to meet them, but I don’t know if I’m ready.”

“Take all the time you need to, then.”

“And Lance?” Keith asked, sitting up and looking down at Lance.

“Hold that thought, I wanna get a picture of you right there.” Lance chuckled, pulling out his phone and taking a quick picture. Keith looked picture perfect, his hair falling just the right way around his face, the starry sky and meteor shower happening behind him. Lance immediately set it as his wallpaper, putting his phone away. “I’m sorry, I really needed to capture that. What’s on your mind?”

“I love you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mina föräldrar bjöd in dig ikväll, men jag sa att du var upptagen. - My parents invited you over tonight, but I told them you were busy.
> 
> Berätta för dem att jag kommer vara där nästa gång då. - Tell them I'll be there next time, then.

**Author's Note:**

> hi everyone! thank you for reading the first chapter, i hoped it would be longer but when you haven't written anything in a while it's not easy to do that. this is a flowershop/magic au my friend and i have been developing for a while now, and we wereplanning on making a comic out of it, but i can't draw plants so oops
> 
> follow me on instagram! my art account is @hime.gure , there i post art and here i post my writing! the next chapter will be up soon! thank you and i hope you keep reading!


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